When Dream and Day Unite
by The Silent Scream
Summary: Nightmares coming true isn't happening the first time in Sunnydale, but that doesn't make it any less dangerous - and again it's up to Buffy and the gang to put a stop to it. Willow / OC est. relationship, rating for violence and cursing.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Since I'm running out of things to say, here's a fun little fact about the title of this fic instead of something deep and meaningful. So I was pondering what to name it after I had finished it, the title just popped into my mind, and I was all "Hooray, that's awesome", and quite sure I came up with it myself. Well, later in the same day, I scrolled through my music collection and saw that Dream Theater has an album of the same name. So much about that. It still fits though, so I left it that way. Enjoy! :D

Disclaimer: No Buffy: TVS characters are mine, just borrowing them for a while.

* * *

When Dream and Day Unite

„Duck!" Buffy shouted, and without thinking about it for even a second, Willow did just that, dropping down to her knees; the crossbow bolt the Slayer had fired the moment she had seen that Willow was doing what she had said shot over her head and hit the demon right behind her, causing him to let out a low gurgle as he toppled over, the bolt now stuck in his thick neck.

"Here", the blonde called out, quickly reloading the crossbow and handing it to her friend, "if any of those comes too close, just fire!"

Nodding, Willow grabbed the weapon tightly, aiming it this way and that while Buffy hurried to join the fight again; now that she had killed yet another demon of the little gang which just had arrived in Sunnydale the night before, eager to kill her and gain the glory of having finished off the Slayer, there still were four of them left, one of them in close hand-to-hand combat with Pat while the other three were looking for an opening to attack.

Still clutching the crossbow, Willow watched how Buffy snuck up to one of those three, then tapped him on the shoulder; when he turned in surprise, she punched him straight in his ugly, scaly and green face, sending him a few steps back, against his comrades.

"Trying to gang up on someone is not considered good manners", Buffy lectured him, prompting him to step closer to her again with a low growl; one of his buddies figured that the other two still standing should be enough to deal with the Slayer's pesky pet demon, turning away from the fight and raising his fists as well, momentarily taken aback when the only response he got from Buffy was that her smirk widened slightly.

"Bring it on, then", she challenged, and he tensed before he did just that, launching himself forward and at her, along with his companion; she easily blocked punches from both of them, then grabbed the nearest thing in reach – the coffee table which had been standing next to the couch ever since her mother and she had moved to Sunnydale – and swung it around, hitting the green and scaly demon right in the head and sending him down to the ground, the table smashing at the impact, bits and pieces flying everywhere.

"First you come into my house", Buffy snarled while a few feet away, Pat caught one of the table's legs as it came flying at her and promptly used it to hit the demon in front of her, "and then you make me ruin my table! You should be ashamed."

"Indeed, shame on all of you", Pat agreed as she whacked her opponent with the table leg once more, then turned slightly and threw the piece of wood at the second demon who still had been waiting for a good moment to attack her, smirking when it bounced off his head with an audible clunking noise.

"Touchdown", she added, then focused on the demon in front of her again; and even though she knew that this could change any moment, Willow was glad none of the intruders was paying any attention on her when she watched how her partner ducked a punch and the other demon's fist went right through the wall, bits and pieces of plaster falling to the floor. She shuddered as she imagined what that punch might have done if it had actually connected with her partner's body or even head; before she could ponder this further though, her girlfriend distracted her by landing a kick powerful enough to send the demon in front of her backwards, a low grunt coming from him as he tripped over his own feet and fell.

With an angry snarl, the demon at whom Pat had thrown the chair leg now started forward, bringing up a hand which ended in long, sharp claws; again, the black haired woman ducked as he swiped at her, his claws digging into the wall instead, tearing out more plaster, the sight causing Buffy to wince between two blows to her opponents.

Gritting her teeth as well, Pat started her counter-attack, but before Willow could see what she was doing, the demon she had kicked down before came to his feet again, clenching his fists as he approached the taller woman – and, as the witch realized with horror, making sure that he'd get her from her blind side, finally realizing the advantage he had over her. For a few seconds, the witch was torn between using her magic and the crossbow Buffy had given her; then, she settled for the second option, figuring that it'd be smart to keep her magic for close combat, since the demons would most likely turn on her the moment she'd wound one of them.

Without even noticing that she was holding her breath, she brought the crossbow up and took careful aim, squinting slightly as she focused on the back of the demon sneaking up to her partner; and the moment she pulled the trigger, everything happened at once, the sneaky demon turning his head to look at her, then ducking, the other demon Pat still had been fighting pushing her harshly, right into the line of fire, her good eye going wide when the bolt hit her with an awful meaty _thunk. _

All at once, the demons were gone, and Willow was on her knees next to her partner, her eyes wide as she stammered "No, no, no" over and over again; Buffy was right behind her, staring down on the scene with eyes as big as saucers, as well, but the witch didn't even notice her best friend, unable to take her gaze away from the bolt that protruded from her girlfriend's throat, the blood that was seeping out between her fingers as she pressed them down on the wound in a vain attempt to stop the flow.

"Please", she brought out, her voice trembling so bad she barely could say this word and the ones that followed, "please, no, I'm so sorry, no, no…" Despite her tries to stop the flow of blood, she could feel it still running out of the wound and seeping to the floor between her fingers, the flow pulsing in the rhythm of her partner's heartbeat; and then, the choked, wet gurgles Pat had been letting out grew weaker and weaker, stopping half a minute later, the demon lying dreadfully still as she died, bleeding out on the floor of Buffy's living room, the pulsing rhythm of the flow slowing down as well, then stopping fully…

* * *

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, no, please, no!" The desperate whimpers and cries of her girlfriend tore Pat out of her sleep, and she blinked as she rolled over, needing a moment to figure out that no one was attacking them, but that Willow was having a bad dream; for a few seconds, this gave her a sense of déjà vu as she thought of what had happened the last time the redhead had been plagued by nightmares, then she shrugged it off and tried to wake her, gently touching her shoulder and murmuring her name.

"Willow, dear, wake up", she tried again when the only reaction she got was more whimpering and groaning, "it's a bad dream, just a dream, wake up…"

In response, the redhead let out another whimper, then finally opened her eyes, something the demon could see perfectly thanks to her quite above average night vision; for a few seconds, Willow just held her gaze in the dark, breathing heavily – before she burst into tears, startling the taller woman to no end.

"Hey", she brought out after a few moments of shocked silence, "it's okay, it was just a dream, no need to cry… Come here…"

With those words, she moved to lie beside her again, then pulled her into a tender embrace, frowning in concern when she felt the witch tremble in her arms and cling to her as if she was the piece of wood that would keep her from drowning.

"There, there", she muttered, not sure what else to say since she had no idea what exactly Willow had dreamed that it had upset her so much, "it's okay, whatever it was, it was just a dream…"

"I-it was so real", the redhead finally managed to stammer in reply, the tremble and fear in her voice making her partner's heart clench up, "and, and it was so awful, I killed you!"

"What?" the demon gave back, momentarily shocked; sniffling, Willow nodded, reaching up with one hand to wipe off her tears before she spoke up again, quickly retelling her nightmare to her partner.

"…and then you died, right there, and it was my fault!" she finished, close to tears again, even though by now, she was aware of the fact that it only had been a dream, and not something which really had happened.

"Well, it was just a dream, albeit a quite graphic one", Pat finally said, after a few moments of pondering the nightmare, "so there's nothing to worry about…"

"I hope so", Willow muttered, finally calming down a bit and snuggling closer to the taller woman, even managing a weak smile when she felt the embrace around her tighten, "I've had prophetic dreams before, remember? During that whole mess with Warren…"

"But those were sent by Warren", the demon pointed out, "to upset you, remember? And once you did that spell against them, they stopped."

"Good point", Willow had to admit in reply, then yawned heartily, finally remembering that it was in the middle of the night; her yawn prompted Pat to suggest going back to sleep, making the redhead nod immediately.

"And don't worry about that dream anymore", the taller woman advised after another moment of silence, moving one hand to caress the witch's hair, "I'm sure it was just that, a dream…"

Nodding, Willow just let out another yawn in response, then moved slightly so her head ended up resting on her girlfriend's shoulder; smiling slightly, Pat went on with caressing her hair until her slow and calm breaths showed that she had gone back to sleep, only drifting off into dreamland as well the moment she could be sure that her loved one was slumbering peacefully once more.


	2. Chapter 2

In the next morning, Willow woke up to find herself alone in the king-sized bed; she frowned momentarily, then heard the demon rummaging around in the kitchen, smiling slightly to herself when she realized that, unlike usually, Pat had woken up first and had already begun to prepare breakfast. For a moment, she felt torn between getting up and joining her and remaining in the warm, comfortable bed a bit longer; then, she settled on the second option, briefly wishing that the demon was there instead of in the kitchen to cuddle with her as she made herself comfortable again.

As if her thoughts had somehow been picked up by Pat, her footsteps approached the bedroom moments later; and when she entered, she was carrying a tray, the smell of coffee and toast reaching the witch's nostrils and making her stomach rumble loud enough so the demon could hear, as the smirk on her face showed.

"Seems like I got done just in time", she then stated, making her way to the bed and carefully setting the tray down on the mattress after Willow had moved her blanket aside to create room, "and I figured it'd be nice to have breakfast in bed, been a while since we did that."

"Indeed", the redhead agreed at once, smiling at the taller woman as she sat down beside her; before they both focused on the breakfast though, she leaned in for a tender kiss, smiling at her partner afterwards, briefly pondering the fact that right now, it felt as if she'd never get enough of kissing her, no matter if the kisses were short and innocent or much more passionate and heated.

"Thanks for doing this", she then said, gesturing at the tray while the demon filled the two cups she had brought with the steaming hot black liquid, "that's really sweet and thoughtful."

"What can I say, you bring out that side in me", Pat smirked, handing one of the cups to her before she prepared her own just the way she liked it, something which was done easily and quickly since she only had to pour gracious amounts of sugar into it, "and after that nasty dream you had, I thought you'd deserve it."

"Ack, don't remind me of that dream", Willow grimaced in reply, smiling again though when immediately, Pat looked guilty, "it was nasty enough so I won't need any other nightmares for the next ten years or so. I still can't believe how realistic it was."

"Apart from the fact that Buffy wouldn't hand you that crossbow", Pat shrugged, taking a sip of her coffee before she went on, "not that you can't use it, but she knows you have your magic to defend yourself, and I guess you'd prefer working with that, as well."

"True", Willow agreed after a moment, only realizing now that this was quite the good point, "in fact, I hardly ever used crossbows even before I learned all that magic stuff, so it doesn't make any sense that Buffy would give it to me… And that I'd try to use it against a demon sneaking up on you. I'd just yell a warning to you."

"See?" Pat smirked, helping herself to one of the ham and cheese toasts she had made, "so it wasn't all that realistic. It had a fatal flaw."

"I'll just forget about it", the redhead decided after a moment, "that's probably for the best."

"Yup", her partner agreed at once, then leaned in for another kiss; afterwards, they both focused on their breakfast, the taller woman shaking her head when Willow asked her between two mouthfuls of food if she had any plans for the day.

"Not for the day", she then clarified, "but Buffy asked me if I wanted to come along for patrol tonight. I told her yes, unless you have some plans you'll need me for."

"Nope", the redhead gave back, taking another sip of her coffee before she went on, smiling up at her partner, "in fact, I'd like to come along, if Buffy and you don't mind, it's been quite some time since I went on patrol with you guys."

For a moment, the demon wondered if the nightmare her girlfriend had had was behind this, that it still was bothering her despite her words of reassurance that it wasn't and that thus, she didn't want to let her out of her sight more than necessary; then, she shrugged it off, figuring that, even if that was the case, it'd be nice to have the smaller woman's company during patrol.

"Of course I won't mind", she thus told her, "and neither will Buffy, come on, she's your best friend. Why would she mind?"

"Well, going on patrol together has kinda become a thing of the two of you", Willow shrugged, smiling to make it clear that she didn't mind that, "some sort of bonding time or something, you know what I mean?"

"Um, I guess so", the demon smirked, "but it won't disrupt our… bonding, as you called it, if you come along."

"Good then", the witch gave back, smiling as well; they shared another kiss, then finished breakfast, the taller woman grinning from ear to ear at what her partner suggested after the food and coffee was gone and the tray had been moved to the ground. "So, if you're not having any plans for the day, just like me, why don't we cuddle a bit now? I don't feel like getting up right after this yummy breakfast…"

"You know I'd never say no to cuddling with you", the demon replied at once, making herself comfortable and pulling Willow into her arms; smiling, the redhead snuggled up to her, lazily drawing invisible symbols on her chest with one finger while she silently wondered if she'd fall asleep again, now that she was lying there so comfortably.

"I like that", she sighed after just lying there for a while in silence, "just lying here lazily and cuddling…"

"Me too", Pat let her know, not really surprising her, "with all the action in our lives, it's nice to have such calm times every now and then."

"Indeed", the redhead agreed at once, "but if it were any different, I'd miss it, I know this sounds weird, but it's true."

"We've talked about this before", the demon reminded her, smirking again, "and it doesn't sound weird to me, you know that."

"Yeah, because you get grumpy if you don't beat up anything up for too long", Willow giggled, the taller woman just shrugging, then nodding her agreement, "but anyone else would think it's weird."

"Probably", Pat agreed after a moment, "but who cares? They'd also think it's weird to date a woman who's almost ten times your age."

This made Willow giggle again, and she nodded her agreement; then, she pulled the demon closer for a kiss, all thoughts of possible weirdness and bad dreams leaving her mind when the kiss deepened and all she could focus on was how happy her partner was making her.

* * *

"Damn you", Buffy cursed many hours later as the first vampire they had encountered during patrol kept ducking and blocking her punches; laughing girlishly, the female vampire responded by yet another block, then almost casually rammed her elbow backwards, a low "Ooff" coming from Pat as her try to sneak up on the vampire was ended by the blow landing in her stomach.

"It's not nice to sneak up on people", she reprimanded the demon, then ducked another one of Buffy's punches and countered with one of her own, sending the Slayer a few steps back; keeping a safe distance between the vampire and herself, Willow watched how she turned away from the blonde and faced her partner, giggling girlishly again when the taller woman tried to land a kick and failed as much as Buffy had before.

"I thought you'd be better than this", the vampire taunted, dancing aside to avoid another blow, then moving with surprising speed so she ended up behind the demon and kicking her in the back, sending her down on all fours, "seeing what reputation you have among all of us, I really thought that's it when you spotted me and came after me… But you aren't that tough, are you? Neither of you."

With those words, she grabbed Pat by the back of her jacket before she had the chance to get up; and seconds later, the demon found herself flying, even though it was just a brief flight, ended quite abruptly when she crashed into Buffy, both of them going down and ending up in a heap on the ground.

Deciding that she'd watched long enough, Willow took a step forward and brought up one hand; her eyes narrowed briefly as she concentrated, but by now, she had done that certain spell often enough so that a mere second of focus was all she needed, thick roots growing out of the ground moments later and wrapping around the vampire's legs.

Frowning, the vampire looked down at herself, then up at Willow; she bared her fangs at the witch with an animalistic snarl, then suddenly jerked one leg upwards, the redhead's eyes going wide when the roots were torn to pieces in the process – so far, she had been convinced that this spell could only be broken by magic, not by physical force, something the book where she had found it in years ago had confirmed, as well.

"Not used to someone breaking your little spells so easily, are you", the vampire taunted, moving closer to her, "I've heard about you, too, witch, it'll be my pleasure to drink your blood, maybe it will taste different?"

"You won't taste anyone of us", Buffy snarled as she finally managed to disentangle herself from Pat and came to her feet, the demon doing the same a second later; with a low growl, her fists burst into flames, but before she could do more than take a step towards the vampire, she had moved with shocking speed again, her arms around Buffy moments later, a hoarse cry escaping the Slayer when the sharp fangs sunk into her neck.

"No!" Willow cried out, her eyes going wide; without even fully realizing what she was doing, she shot forward, blue fire crackling in her palms as she raised her hands and grabbed the vampire's head, the pain which immediately shot through the undead woman prompting her to yell as she let go of the Slayer, the blonde slumping back into Pat's waiting arms, a dazed expression on her face, blood trickling down her throat.

"Willow!" the demon called out as the vampire fell to her knees, clutching her head and gasping; the redhead looked up just in time to see her partner toss her a stake, and she caught it easily, then brought it down with all her might, letting out a heavy breath when moments later, the vampire disintegrated into a cloud of dust. The moment the vampire had perished, Willow dropped the stake and rushed to where Pat was by now kneeling on the ground, cradling the wounded Buffy in her arms; to her relief, the dazed look already had vanished from the blonde's face, replaced by one which was mostly annoyed and a tiny bit shocked.

"She bit me", she finally said after a few moments of silence, "that bitch really bit me!"

"Is it bad?" Willow demanded to know, carefully moving her best friend's hair aside so she could get a look at the wound; the skin was torn and bloodied where the vampire had sunk her teeth into it, but the flow of blood was already ceasing, and she figured that it would look much less threatening after it had been cleaned.

"No", Buffy now confirmed the redhead's thoughts, "you got her away from me before she could drink too much… But this has never happened to me before, at least not like that. Why was she so fast and strong?"

"No idea, and I hope this won't become a trend amongst them now", Pat grumbled as an answer, "it was quite unnerving how she just grabbed me and threw me at you. What did she think I am, a piece of wood?"

"Apparently", Buffy smiled, moving out of her grip and sitting up, grimacing as she gingerly touched the wounds in her throat and felt the blood drying on the skin around them, "but you're okay, aren't you?"

"Yes", the demon gave back at once, "just peachy keen. Let's just hope the other vampires tonight will be less skilled than that one right now, so it'll stay that way."

"Wise words", the Slayer agreed, coming to her feet again and dusting herself off; Pat did the same, then looked around the cemetery, straining her ears as she tried to pick up the noises vampires typically were making when they were digging themselves out of their grave.

"Hear anything?" Willow wanted to know after her partner just had listened in silence for almost a minute; with a dismayed look, the taller woman shook her head, then sighed as she looked around once more, her gaze focusing on Buffy afterwards. "I guess this doesn't meant that we're done for the night though, right?"

"Right", the Slayer agreed at once, "we should check here a bit longer and maybe head on to another one in case we don't find anything else here."

"Alright", the demon shrugged, clearly not minding much, "let's go then, we won't find any vampires if we just keep standing around here."

"No", a fourth voice came up before Buffy or Willow could reply, "but the vampires find you." And with those words, figures began to emerge from the shadows around them, the demon growling lowly in the back of her throat while she clenched her fists as she counted them; it was obvious even without count that the vampires were outnumbering them, and the fact that there were eleven of them, forming a circle around them, didn't help to calm her down.

Licking his lips, the vampire who had spoken looked from one member of the trio to the next; finally, his gaze settled on Buffy, his voice full of hunger when he spoke up again, his words making the other vampires bare their teeth hungrily as well. "Boys, girls… The snack bar is open. Let's start with the Slayer."


	3. Chapter 3

They all rushed them at once, not making the mistake of coming at them one after the other, fangs bared and fists raised; the first one to reach Pat was met with a flaming fist straight into the face, howling in pain as he stumbled back, clutching at his burned face, then falling over his own feet and landing on the ground, making yet another vampire who'd been charging the demon trip and nearly fall, as well. Before she could regain her balance, she was grabbed at the front of her dress, the beautiful gown they had buried her in; it caught fire, but before she could worry about that and about how much she might get hurt, she was flung to the right, crashing into two more vampires who had been inches from attacking the Slayer.

Giving her best to ignore the shouts and growls the fighting vampires were letting out, Willow quickly snatched the small leather pouch she'd been carrying on her belt; between two blows, Buffy saw how she loosened the string keeping it closed and poured some of the powder it contained on her palm, a smirk forming on her face as she realized what the witch was about to do, only to be wiped off seconds later when one of the vampires snatched her from behind and sunk his teeth deep into her neck.

"Willow!" she cried out in shock, in perfect unison with Pat; as if in slow motion, she saw the demon start moving as well, then the taller woman was tackled from two more vampires and teeth flashed up, followed by sucking and gulping sounds.

"No!" Buffy shouted, bringing up the stake that suddenly was in her hand, but before she could take more than two steps, all the remaining vampires jumped her, burying her beneath them, and then their teeth were everywhere, biting into her flesh, drinking her blood, ignoring her struggles, and soon they grew weaker as the blood loss became too big to ignore, the world darkening around her as she realized with horror that she would die… From the corner of her eye, she saw someone standing close to her, watching her with a small smile curling the green and scaly lips, then the darkness took over and all thoughts were gone.

* * *

"Buffy! Dammit Buffy, wake up!" Groaning, Buffy forced herself to open her eyes, asking herself what exactly just had happened when she found herself looking up at both Willow and Pat, the couple looking awfully concerned; the last thing she remembered was how the vampires had taken her down, how they had bitten both her friends before that…

"Are you okay?" Willow demanded to know, the Slayer only now realizing that she was grasping her hand, "you can hear me, right? Are you okay?"

"I can hear you", the blonde made herself answer after just staring at her friend in stunned silence for a while, trying to figure out why there were no bite marks anywhere on her; carefully, she tried to sit up, wincing when sharp pain ran through her throat moments later.

"Don't sit up yet", Willow advised her at once, "that vampire got you pretty bad, I'm so glad you woke up again, we already thought we'll have to take you to the hospital, that bitch really got you good…"

"Which one of them?" Buffy groaned, only to frown when moments later, Willow and Pat exchanged confused looks, the demon sounding that way, too, when she answered. "What do you mean, which one of them? There was just one."

"No", the Slayer protested at once, trying to sit up again and succeeding this time, even though sharp pain ran through her neck again at the movement, "there were much more, ten or eleven, and they got you both…"

"No there weren't", Willow replied, exchanging another look with Pat, now a concerned one, "there was just this one vampire, she got you and drank pretty much of you and you passed out."

"Maybe you had a dream while you were knocked out", Pat hazarded, shrugging when this resulted in both Buffy and Willow looking at her curiously. "What? It's the only thing I can come up with."

"And it does make sense", the Slayer admitted after a moment, "it must have been a dream then… Well, better said, a nightmare. I didn't know you can have nightmares when you're knocked unconscious."

"Apparently, you can", the demon shrugged, putting an arm around the blonde's waist and helping her to her feet, "and now, we better get you home so you can get some rest and have some more pleasant dreams than vampires eating Willow and me. Not that I think they would eat me, by the way, I doubt they'd like demon blood."

"Isn't your blood kinda normal?" Willow wanted to know, moving to the Slayer's other side to help supporting her as well, "at least it looks normal whenever you bleed."

"Doesn't taste normal though", Pat smirked at her as the three of them slowly started to walk towards the cemetery's exit, making sure Buffy could keep up despite how wobbly her legs still felt, "vampire bit me once, decades ago, and spat it right back out. Said it tasted rotten. Must have been because of my age."

"Or demon blood just tastes bad", Buffy muttered, "but I still don't get it, it seemed so real, I could feel them biting me and everything… I heard the noises they made when they were drinking from the two of you…"

"Nightmares can be that way", Willow wisely let her know, "I had one too the other night and it was horribly realistic."

"I hope there won't be a repeat performance", Buffy grumbled in reply; both Willow and Pat just smirked at her as an answer, then the witch recommended some warm milk with honey as a nightmare retardant, giggling at the way Buffy shuddered in response to her words.

"Warm milk with honey, ugh", the blonde then also voiced her dismay about that idea, "that's gross. Who drinks that stuff?"

"I do", Willow shrugged at once, "or else I wouldn't have recommended it. Trust me, it really helps!"

"But it's gross", Buffy whined, momentarily feeling absurdly like a child – before Pat decided to add her two cents as well, with a recommendation much more fit for an adult. "Try a shot of whiskey then, that helps, too."

"That's more like it", the Slayer smiled, shrugging at the mortified look the witch gave her in reply, her voice incredulous when she spoke up again. "If you drink a shot of whiskey after losing that much blood, you'll probably be drunk right away. Are you sure this is smart?"

"Oh, right", the demon realized before Buffy could reply anything, "I forgot about the blood loss. Scratch the whiskey then, go for the milk."

"I'll just go to sleep", the Slayer decided, "and can we please stop talking about milk now?"

"Fine with me", Willow smirked, giggling at the relieved look Buffy gave her in reply; then, the blonde asked if they could walk a bit faster, reassuring them both that she was capable of it when she received sceptic looks.

"If we keep this pace up, it'll take you an hour to walk me home", she argued, "and I doubt you'd like that. I'm feeling much better already, anyway. Slayer bonuses, you know?"

"Alright", the redhead agreed after a moment, knowing that arguing with Buffy when she was having that certain tone in her voice didn't lead anywhere, anyway, "but the moment you feel dizzy or something, you tell us, alright?"

"Yes, Mom", Buffy smiled, making the witch laugh once more; she shook her head slightly, then sped up her pace, prompting the Slayer and the demon to do the same, the three of them continuing their banter as they walked to the Summers house, the brief horrifying moments of the patrol forgotten by the time they arrived there.

* * *

The moment the couple had arrived at their own home, Willow made her way into bedroom, only taking the time to get out of her shoes and jacket; after doing the same, Pat followed her, smirking as she watched how Willow immediately changed into her pyjama and let herself fall into bed, a content sigh escaping her.

"Even though we just encountered one vamp, it was an awfully tiring evening", she told her partner after just lying there for a while and watching how the demon changed into what she normally wore for sleep, namely loosely fitting pyjama pants and an oversized shirt of one of the bands she liked, "what with Buffy getting bitten and being knocked out for so long afterwards."

"It wasn't that long", Pat gave back, joining her partner in bed and earning a frown when she lit up a cigarette after making herself comfortable, "just a few minutes, ten at the most. Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Because you're smoking in the bedroom and the window's not open, plus, you might fall asleep and burn the place down", Willow reprimanded, smiling slightly again when her partner sighed, got up and moved to the window, opening it and remaining right next to it, making sure to hold her cigarette outside.

"I never fall asleep while smoking", she found it necessary to point out anyway, "and even if I did and the place would start to burn, you seem to be forgetting that I'm fireproof. I'm like asbestos."

"But I'm not", Willow reminded her of her vulnerability to fire, "and searching for a new place would be stressful, not to mention all the stuff that would get burnt. Like your beloved band t-shirts. Who names a band Haggard anyway?"

"Don't ask me", the demon shrugged, "asked the guy who named them. I didn't buy it for the band name anyway…"

"But for the gruesome picture?" the redhead teased, eying said picture, some sort of dramatic scene with a guy lying in the arms of a woman, fire and dark clouds in the background; smirking, Pat shook her head, then let her know that she had bought it because she liked the album it had been made for, the witch accepting this without teasing her any further about the gruesome motive.

"Finish that cigarette", she said instead, "and come back to bed, I wanna cuddle some more before going to sleep."

"Your wish is my command", Pat smirked at once, taking one final, long drag of the cancer stick before she threw it out the window; she took the time to close it, then moved back into the bed, smiling when immediately, Willow snuggled up to her.

"That's the way I like it", the witch sighed out once she had made herself comfortable again, the demon's arms around her, one hand lazily caressing her waist, "I always sleep so good when you hold me like that…"

"Let's hope that'll work tonight as well, then", Pat smirked, "I wouldn't want you to have any more nightmares. It's enough that you had one yesterday."

"And then poor Buffy had one too while she was knocked out", Willow mumbled, close to drifting off into sleep; if she had been feeling more awake, she might have asked herself if there was a connection between her nightmare and the one the Slayer had had, but thanks to her tiredness, that thought didn't come up, not even in the back of her mind.

"Yup, poor Buffy", the demon agreed, moving one hand to caress her partner's hair; Willow smiled slightly as an answer, then let out another yawn, closing her eyes afterwards and making an agreeing noise when her partner told her to sleep well.

"You too", she brought out after a moment, not even bothering to open her eyes again; smiling at how cute her partner was when she was tired, Pat went on with caressing her hair until she had fallen asleep, only ceasing when the long, slow breaths of the smaller woman made it obvious that she had drifted off into dreamland, following her there a few minutes later.


	4. Chapter 4

In the next morning, the couple enjoyed a calm breakfast together, then made their way to the Magic Box where Willow needed to restock some of her supplies; as always when she took her girlfriend along to the store, Anya immediately enlisted the taller woman for helping with a delivery, making Pat wonder out loud if she actually waited with putting them away until she'd drop by every now and then.

"Actually, I do that with the heavy boxes", the ex-demon admitted freely, "Xander usually is too tired after a day on the building site to lift them for me and not as strong as you anyway, and I'm weaker than he is, so…"

"I knew it", Pat grumbled, "but, fine, I'll help you… But only if you'll give Willow a twenty-five percent discount on whatever she'll buy now!"

"Fifteen", Anya started the usual haggling, Willow watching and listening with a slight smirk on her face; shaking her head, Pat crossed her arms over her chest, her voice strict when she replied. "Twenty-five and no less."

"Seventeen and a half", the ex-demon still tried anyway, frowning when Pat shook her head, not even dignifying that with a verbal answer.

"Twenty?" Anya tried again, grumbling when again the demon only shook her head; they stared at each other in silence for a few more moments, then the smaller woman threw her hands up, sounding so annoyed that it was comical when she cried out "Fine! Twenty-five then! Jeez, you're greedy!"

"Look who's talking", Pat smirked, then turned to her girlfriend, a mischievous sparkle in her good eye when she told the witch to better buy a lot now.

"Oh I will", Willow reassured her at once, smiling as well, "thanks for getting me that discount."

"While you choose what you will use that discount on, you come and help me", Anya demanded, still sounding annoyed; she grabbed Pat by the sleeve and dragged her into the backroom, pointing to several large and heavy-looking boxes waiting there for her.

"The one in the middle should go up on that shelf", she explained, making the demon growl at her as she always did whenever Anya wanted her to lift heavy stuff up on high shelves, "and the three others to the back of the storage, they are awfully in the way here."

"No shit", the demon grumbled, deciding to start with the lifting of the heavy box first; she grunted as she bent down and hoisted it up, the muscles of her arms bulging visibly beneath her jacket when she carried it the few steps to the shelf, then lifted it up and placed it on the board Anya had pointed out to her, the smaller woman nodding at the questioning look the demon gave her afterwards.

"It's just fine there", she then confirmed, "now the three others, I can't believe I agreed to a twenty-five percent discount for so little work…"

"Too late now", Pat smirked, moving to pick up the second box; just when she bent down though, a shriek suddenly came up outside in the shop area of the store, prompting her to freeze in mid-movement as she immediately had recognized the voice as Willow's, the unmistakeable sound of a roaring fire following moments later, the distinct smell of smoke drifting into the storage room.

"Fire!" Anya shrieked, now sounding as if she was close to panicking, "there's a fire in the store!"

"Get out through the back door", Pat ordered immediately, pointing out said door to her, "I'll make sure Willow's okay and take her outside, meet us in front of the store, call the fire fighters!"

For a few moments, Anya looked as if she wanted to protest, then she just nodded as she saw the thick, black clouds of smoke which by now were drifting into the room; she hurried to the backdoor without another glance at the demon, and after making sure that she really was going outside and not hanging back to retrieve the cash register or something equally stupid, Pat made her way back to the store's main area as fast as she could, her heart nearly jumping up to her throat when she stepped through the door leading there.

Thanks to her demonic side, fire neither scared her, nor could it harm her; still, the raging inferno that had formed in the store in that shockingly short timespan made her fear for her partner's life, the witch standing with her back pressed against the wall, the flames raging all around her, forming a half-circle around her and keeping her from moving more than an inch or two.

"Pat!" she cried out when she spotted her girlfriend, then coughed heavily as the shout had prompted her to breathe in a lungful of smoke, "help me…!"

Glad that fire couldn't harm her, Pat started moving over to her, walking as fast as she dared to on the burning ground, not wanting to have it break beneath her and make her fall God knew where; to her relief, she made it to Willow's side without any unpleasant incidents, quickly grabbing the witch and lifting her up on her arms moments later.

"I'll try to keep you away from the flames, just hold on tight, it'll be okay", she mumbled, hoping that she sounded soothing, already moving back to the door which lead to the storage area – the path to the front door was blocked by too much fire to allow her going through without endangering the redhead too much, and as far as she could tell, the fire hadn't reached the storage yet.

Clutching to her, Willow gave her best to make herself as small as possible without actually moving too much, not wanting her partner to drop her; she gave her best to breathe as little as possible, but still had to cough every now and then, a shudder running through her as she thought of the last time Pat had taken her out of such an inferno. _But back then, the burning place belonged to our enemy, not to one of our closest friends, _she absurdly thought to herself, flinching in the demon's grasp when several flames came dangerously close to her feet; she tried to pull them up even further, relief filling her when a few moments later, Pat stepped through the door leading to the storage room with her, kicking it shut behind herself, making sure that the flames were kept away at least for a little while.

"I hope Anya called the firemen by now", she muttered, more to herself than to her partner, while she hurried to the back door; thankfully, the ex-demon had thought of leaving it open, and moments later, the couple was outside on the sidewalk, breathing the fresh and clean air.

"Much better", Willow commented, "and you can put me down again now, Sweetie, I'm fine…"

"Are you sure?" Pat demanded to know, making her partner nod; for a few more seconds, the taller woman remained looking sceptical, then nodded as well and carefully put Willow down, keeping one arm around her waist though, to catch her again the moment she'd show any signs of falling or even fainting.

"Poor Anya", the redhead commented as they started walking – after she had reassured Pat once more that she was okay and that she could walk just fine – and made their way back to the front of the shop, "she must be devastated now, the shop burning down, this is—" She fell silent at once as she reached the store's front with her girlfriend, her eyes going wide; next to her, Pat had a similar expression on their face, and both of them were mimicking Anya perfectly, the ex-demon looking quite dumbstruck as well.

"What the…" Pat finally brought out, saying out loud what everyone else was thinking as they stared at the perfectly intact store, the flames and smoke gone, looking as if the fire had never existed.

* * *

"What was that?" Anya finally demanded to know, turning to look at the two other women, "did you try a spell, Willow? Admit it!"

"No!" the witch immediately gave back, still unable to take her eyes off the store, her mind racing as she tried to figure out what had happened – after all, she had been in there just minutes ago, had felt the heat of the flames and had smelled the smoke, she knew that the fire had been as real as it got.

"Well, I'm glad it was fake fire, or whatever it was", Anya went on, making her way to the front door and opening it, momentarily looking weary, as if she was expecting the flames to reappear the moment she'd set foot inside the store, "losing the store to fire is one of my worst nightmares, and just think of all the money! It would cost so much to repair all that damage, not to mention the ruined merchandise!"

Those words snapped Willow out of her train of thought, and she stared at the ex-demon with wide eyes, sounding just a tad excited when she asked her to repeat what she just had said.

"I said, it would cost so much to repair the store, and not to mention all the ruined merchandise", Anya gave back, frowning in honest confusion when the witch rolled her eyes at that, then said "No, before that", making the ex-demon's frown deepen for a moment before she realized what Willow was aiming at.

"You mean that part about the store burning down being my worst nightmare?" she wanted to know, raising an eyebrow when Willow nodded in excitement, pouting when a moment later, the redhead turned to her partner and asked her if this didn't seem weird.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not sure if I'm following you here", Pat gave back, looking a bit sheepish, "I mean, I understand why that would be Anya's worst nightmare, but what about it seems weird?"

"Think about it", Willow gave back, "at first, I had this nightmare about you dying because of me, then Buffy had a nightmare about you, her and me getting killed, and now the store seems to burn down, but then the fire is gone, and Anya says that would be one of her worst nightmares?"

"Well, now that you put it that way, I do see a certain pattern", the demon agreed after thinking about this for a moment, "but what does it mean? Our nightmares aren't coming true, are they, I mean, we're all still alive and the fire vanished again, as well."

"Thank God", Anya threw in while Willow nodded, now looking thoughtful again as she tried to put the few puzzle pieces that suddenly had been made visible to her together, frowning to herself as she worked on figuring this out.

"We better call Giles, and Buffy", she decided after a moment, "because, to be honest, I have no idea what to think of all this. Maybe Giles will know something… Hey Anya, you didn't happen to see a little boy around while you waited for us, right?"

"Um, no", the ex-demon gave back, sounding confused again, "why do you ask such a strange question?"

"Yeah, why?" Pat wanted to know, as well, making the redhead shrug with a slightly sheepish smile on her face before she explained the reason behind her strange question. "Well, we had something similar happen to all of us, back then when we were in High School, and it was kinda the fault of a little boy in a coma, even though he didn't really mean it, so I was wondering…"

"No, I didn't see any little boys", Anya told her once more in reply, "and I think Xander told me about the incident you just mentioned. His nightmare involved a clown. He punched him."

She sounded so absurdly proud at the last three words that Willow and Pat just had to smile; the redhead nodded her agreement, briefly shuddering as she thought of what her nightmare had been about back then, only to shrug it off moments later, telling herself that this didn't matter anymore now.

"I'll go call Xander", Anya tore her out of her thoughts once more, "and ask him to come to Giles' place! Will you call Buffy and Giles?"

"Yes", Pat gave back, already getting out her phone, "the sooner we speak of this, the better."

Nodding, Willow watched how her partner at first called Giles, then Buffy, settling a meeting with all of them in half an hour; at the same time, Anya talked to her boyfriend and told him to come to the Watcher's house as well, ignoring his protest about how he had to work and reminding him of the fact that the Magic Box and thus the money was in danger, the smug smile on her face when she hung up showing that she had convinced him in the end.

"He'll be there", she confirmed the expression, "let's go now then so we'll be there on time, too!"

This made both Willow and Pat nod, the demon lighting up a cigarette as they started walking, exchanging worried glances as they tried to figure out what was going on and how much worse things might become before they'd find a solution, none of them noticing the cold pair of eyes watching them from a dark side alley on the opposite street.


	5. Chapter 5

"Unfortunately, there are several entities which use dreams to reach their goals", Giles let the whole group know an hour later, after Buffy, Willow and Anya had told of their nightmares, all of them agreeing that this had to be more than a simple coincidence – especially now, with Anya's nightmare actually happening in reality and while she'd been awake.

"Are there any recurring elements in your nightmares?" the Watcher now wanted to know, giving them all a curious look, "a person, or maybe something in the background? A noise, or a smell?"

"I don't think so", Buffy was the one to answer that, after exchanging looks with Anya and Willow, "but to be honest, I don't remember much anymore, you know how it is with nightmares…"

"Same here", the redhead agreed, "the only thing I still remember clearly – unfortunately – is the end of the nightmare, with Pat bleeding out and how the blood felt against my fingers…"

"No more details, please", the demon muttered, making Giles smile slightly for a moment before he sighed and took off his glasses, beginning them to clean them while he spoke up again. "Well, as the incident at the Magic Box showed, the nightmares aren't restricted to phases of sleep or unconsciousness anymore, so we should all be on high alert – if the one responsible for this can access all our nightmares and make them come true, this might become very serious."

"No shit", Pat mumbled, shrugging at the look she received from the Watcher in reply, quickly speaking on before he – or Willow – could reprimand her.

"But if the nightmares now also can happen while we're awake, why did the fire vanish again then? Without leaving the slightest trace?" she demanded to know, frowning when Giles shrugged, then sighed at the look on her face.

"I can't know for sure", he then informed her, "it might mean that the being isn't strong enough yet to use our nightmares in this world permanently, and that it can only pull them out of our dreamscapes for a short while if we're awake. Or maybe it was just a test, to see how far it can go."

"So the possibility that it's a coincidence is totally dropped by now", Xander summed up once the Brit had fallen silent again, "but that's all we really know so far, right? How are we supposed to figure out who is behind this?"

"The old-fashioned way", Giles gave back, "with research. Just give me a few minutes to get some volumes which might be helpful."

With those words, he got up from his seat and made his way to the big bookshelf at the wall behind him; he looked at the books for a while, then finally pulled a few of them out and returned to where the group was seated around his living room table, handing the books out to Buffy, Xander and Pat before he looked at Willow and let her know that she could use his laptop for the research.

Nodding her agreement, the witch got up and moved to the table the laptop sat on, making herself comfortable in front of it; while she booted it and waited for it to finish doing so, Anya complained about not getting a book, as well, prompting the Watcher to give her a surprised look before he shrugged and ruefully let her know that these were all the books he had on the subject.

"You could go to the shop though, maybe you have some more there", he then suggested, "look for books about the dreamscape and how to enter and influence it. Also, some information about demons, ghost and other entities who use the dreamscape for personal gain might be useful."

"Xander, come with me", Anya demanded as an answer to that, "give your book to Giles, I don't wanna go there alone, what if there's a fire again?"

"Of course I'll come with you", the young man agreed at once, handing the book to the Watcher before he got up from his seat; Anya beamed at him, then they left the house together while Giles made himself comfortable on the couch and opened the book, beginning to leaf through it.

With a held-back sigh, Pat did the same with the volume he had given to her; Buffy smirked when the demon grimaced at the tiny print, making sure to keep her expression neutral though when the taller woman looked up and at her, as if challenging her to say something. As innocently as she could, she smiled back at Pat, then focused on her own book; for a while, the room was mostly quiet, the only sounds being the noise the three reading people made as they turned the pages and the clattering of the laptop keys whenever Willow typed something, her gaze firmly fixed on the monitor in front of her.

"What about that", Buffy finally broke the silence after almost twenty minutes had passed, turning her book so Giles could look at it, "a spell to influence our dreams? Could that be it?"

"Not really, I'm afraid", the Watcher gave back after he had read through the passage the blonde had pointed out to him, making her pout, "this is only about controlling what you dream, not about making it come true."

"Damn", Buffy pouted, turning the book back around so she could go on reading, "and here I was, hoping I'd found the solution so quickly."

"You know that hardly ever is the case", Giles mildly gave back, causing her pout to intensify while she nodded; before he could come up with something reassuring to say though, Pat spoke up, sounding thoughtful, her words gaining his full attention within the blink of an eye.

"Maybe we should try to find out if it's just us experiencing that, or if the whole town is going through it", she suggested, the Watcher nearly slapping himself when he realized that for some reason, he hadn't thought of that so far, "that also might make it easier to narrow down who might be responsible, no?"

"Good point", Buffy agreed as well while Willow looked up from the laptop monitor and beamed at her partner, even giving her a thumbs-up and briefly making her chuckle, "but how do we find out? I mean, we can hardly go from house to house and ask people if their nightmares are coming true, right?"

"I think we'll notice after a while", Pat shrugged as an answer, "just think of Anya's worst nightmare, the Magic Box burning down? There must be others, similar ones, and those we'll notice for sure."

"But how will we know it's a nightmare?" Giles threw in, raising an eyebrow at the taller woman, "if it's a fire like it was in Anya's case, it might have natural causes."

"Not if it just vanishes again the moment everyone left the building", Pat pointed out in reply, "and that's what it did at the Magic Box. It's worth a try, isn't it? Seeing what kind of town this is, I bet people will have enough nightmares that can come true, we'll just spot them while we're on patrol, we won't even need to look for them."

"If everyone is going through that, it might make things worse, right?" Buffy grimaced, shrugging when they all looked at her curiously, nervously moving one hand through her hair as she tried to explain. "Well, if whatever is behind that isn't strong enough yet to make the dreams come true permanently, maybe it will become stronger by subjecting people to their nightmares. And the more people go through that, the stronger it'll get… so…"

"Oh", Willow let out in response to that, not all too smart, "I see what you mean…" She exchanged a dismayed look with the Slayer, then focused on the laptop again; this clearly worked as a signal for the rest to go back to work as well, and again, the room fell silent as they kept up the research, all of them well aware of how pointless it might be, at least until they'd know more about the whole situation.

* * *

"Am I glad Giles finally ended this", Pat muttered almost three hours later, walking down the street with her partner by her side, back to their home, "I swear, if I'd had to go through one more of those books with the ridiculously tiny print, I would have gone insane."

"I'm sure you would have been fine", Willow smirked in reply, only to grow serious again moments later as she grasped the taller woman's hand and held it tenderly, "but I can imagine that it was tiring for you, reading that tiny letters the whole time…"

"As I always say, the people who wrote those books had no consideration for poor one-eyed people like me", the demon grumbled, making the redhead smile again, "they should be ashamed."

"Well, when those books were written, paper was hard to come by, expensive and rare", the witch explained in reply, forgetting that the taller woman actually had been alive already at that time and thus knew all about that, "so they had to write small to save room."

"I know, Sweetie, I was alive back then already, remember?" Pat smirked, prompting Willow to blush brightly as she realized that the taller woman was right; she cleared her throat noisily, making the other woman laugh before she stopped walking and pulled her closer for a brief kiss, the two beaming at each other afterwards.

"I wonder who'll be next", Willow then pondered as they resumed walking, "so far, I had a nightmare, Buffy, and Anya. I wonder if Xander had one and just didn't tell us, or Dawn."

"Well, if they came true like Anya's, I'm pretty sure they would have said something", Pat shrugged, digging through her pockets with her free hand until she found her cigarette; since she didn't want to let go of her partner, it took her longer than usual to get one of them out of the pack, since she could only use one hand, but finally, she managed, briefly looking around to make sure no one was watching before she lit it up on the flame she'd made appear on her finger.

"You shouldn't do that in public", Willow scolded her at once, giving her a strict look, "some day, someone will see you, and what will you tell them then?"

"I'll worry about that when it happens", the demon shrugged, "but I made sure no one's around, so no worries."

Still not looking convinced, the redhead gave her another sceptical look; before she could say something else though, the demon suddenly froze in mid-movement, her good eye briefly narrowing – before she looked at her girlfriend, sounding just worried enough to let her notice when she told her to go and hide somewhere.

"Someone's coming", she explained at the curious look the redhead gave her in reply, "and I'd rather not go into detail about it now, but keeping one of _my_ worst nightmares in mind, it might be better if you're not too close to me when I fight…"

"Okay", the witch agreed at once, figuring that the taller woman knew what she was talking about; she briefly looked around, then hurried to the nearest side alley, ducking behind a dumpster there, keeping her gaze fixed on the demon, wondering if Pat actually was right and someone was coming to attack her, or if it had been a mistake. Only half a minute later, it was made clear that the demon had been right – she clenched her fists, then turned and looked at someone Willow couldn't see from her hiding place, her voice down to a low growl when she addressed the unseen person.

"Okay, pal, sneaky time's over", she snarled, smoke starting to curl from her still tightly clenched fists, "you better tell me who you are and what you want, or I'll beat the information out of you."

"Just wanted to meet the famous pet of the Slayer", a deep, somehow gross voice replied, sounding as if the owner was speaking through a mouthful of food, "there's a lot of talk about you going on among us, you know…"

"Well, we met then", Pat gave back, not sounding all too impressed, "and now it's time to part again. Whatever you want, I'm not interested."

"Aw, I was hoping we could have a little talk", the other one gave back, the redhead by now quite sure that he was a demon, as well; her partner just let out a snort in reply, the noise soon followed by the sigh which came from the still unseen other person on the otherwise deserted street.

"Well, well, well", he then stated, "it's a pity, I was hoping we might have a civilized talk and you'd see reason. Seeing how you act right now though, that's pretty much impossible, isn't it?"

"Correct", the taller woman gave back, "and I guess that means you'll want to fight me now and try to kill me? For fame and glory?"

"Correct", the demon mimicked her, and moments later, Willow gasped as he launched himself forward and she finally could see him; he was shockingly tall, more than a head taller than her girlfriend, and nearly twice as broad, his arms bulging with muscles the size of watermelons.

_Is this one of her nightmares? _the redhead pondered as she watched how the tall demon tried to punch Pat and she barely managed to duck, _a demon she can't defeat? Maybe I should try to help, but she did tell me to stay away… _She frowned as she thought about her options, not sure if she should try to intervene with some of her magic or not; now, she wished that Pat had told her more about the nightmare which had caused her to send her into hiding, only to be distracted of those thoughts immediately when she watched how her partner took a quite powerful punch and stumbled a few steps back.

Deciding that this was more than enough of a reason to help, Willow straightened up behind the dumpster and briefly closed her eyes as she concentrated; and when she opened them again, the tall, bulky demon was right in front of her, a small gasp escaping her before his fist slammed into her stomach and she was smashed against the wall behind her, stars exploding in front of her eyes when the back of her head connected with the stone.

"Don't you dare touch her!" Pat shouted, running to catch up with the other demon, trying to figure out how he had been able to move so quick – to her, it had looked as if he simply had teleported from the spot in front of her right to where Willow had been hiding. Shrugging it off and telling herself that this was the logic of dreams, she jumped the moment she was close enough, landing on the demon's back; he grunted, then almost ran backwards, pinning the black haired woman between the wall behind her and his massive body, her breath leaving her with the low grunt she let out at the impact.

For a moment, this almost was enough to make her loosen her grip around the demon's throat; then, she spotted Willow on the ground, the witch lying on the street facedown, a puddle of blood forming around her head slowly, but steadily, and with another low grunt, she tightened her grip instead of letting go, the bulky demon starting to make choking noises as she cut off his flow of air. Bending forward, he tried to shake her off, to no avail though; then, he felt her change her grip, his eyes briefly going wide as he realized what she intended to do, but before he could even try to stop her, she'd grasped him at the forehead and around the lower jaw, jerking his head to the left with all her might moments later, the sound of his neck breaking echoing through the quiet night.

Still with a snarl on her face, Pat let go of the now dead demon, watching how he dropped to the ground; and just a second later, he was gone, and Willow was sitting up on the street, looking dazed and confused, but apparently unhurt, the blood vanished from where it had been pooling just moments ago.

"Willow", she heard her partner call out, the concern in her voice briefly making her wonder what had happened – before her memories came back to her and she grimaced as she thought of how she'd been flung against the wall by that huge demon, her hand automatically moving to the back of her head, surprise filling her when she found no wound, not even a bump.

"Are you okay?" Pat wanted to know, kneeling down next to her and giving her another worried look, "you were hurt when I killed that asshole, but it seems you're fine now…"

"I think I am", Willow reassured her after another moment of waiting for pain to appear somewhere, "it must have been another one of those dream thingies… And when you killed him, it was reversed."

"Yeah, thank goodness for that", Pat sighed, then put an arm around her waist and helped her to her feet, grimacing when immediately, Willow asked her if that was one of her worst nightmares.

"Not that scenario specifically", she then explained, keeping one arm around her just in case, "but the general idea… That you get hurt, or even killed, because of some fuckup I make."

"Language", Willow automatically replied, "and aw, that's kinda sweet, but what happened right now wasn't your fault. That demon was moving so fast, one moment he was fighting you and the next he was in front of you, how could you have stopped him from hurting me?"

"Kill him before he managed to get to you?" Pat suggested as an answer, then shrugged, giving her partner a wry smile afterwards.

"As I said", she went on a moment later, "it's not that specific scenario that's in my nightmares, but the general idea…"

"Anything else?" Willow wanted to know, giving the taller woman a curious look, her expression softening considerably at the answer she received a second later. "In fact, yes… that might sound wimpy or something, but the thought of losing my other eye terrifies me."

"That's neither wimpy, nor anything else, it's understandable", Willow reassured her, placing one hand on hers and giving it a tender squeeze, "let's hope that's one that won't come true… Not even if they're still reversed, it would be awfully traumatic anyway."

"I'm not sure that, as a demon, I can be traumatized", Pat chuckled, making the witch smile as well after a moment; as if on cue, they both stopped walking, but before they could share the kiss which had been the reason for their stop, an unknown, male voice started screaming not all too far away, so full of fear and panic that it made both of them jump. "No, please! Please! No, someone help me, nooo!"

Startled, the couple exchanged a look – before they both started running without another word being necessary, both of them fearing what they might find now, asking themselves if now, they'd find out for sure if it was just their nightmares – or if the worst dreams of the screaming man had come true, as well.


	6. Chapter 6

It didn't take the couple long to find the guy, and the reason for his screams; he was on all fours, crawling away as fast as he could from an overly large, black dog, the beast staring at him with red eyes as it growled lowly, saliva dripping from its sharp teeth, alarming hissing noises coming up where it hit the asphalt, making it boil visibly.

"A dog", Pat stated, wishing that she had brought along a weapon despite her brave next words, "not very creative."

"But dangerous enough if it bites you", Willow pointed out to her, "also, quite a big dog, not to mention that acid saliva… or whatever that is."

"Please", the man now stammered, either ignoring them or not even noticing them, "please leave me alone, I didn't mean to, I'm sorry!"

The only response he got was that the growls of the dog became a bit louder – before the muscles in its hind legs tensed visibly beneath the shaggy black fur, and moments later, it jumped, only to be thrown aside seconds before it could collide with the now screaming again man, hit by the spell Willow had fired at it.

"Good one", Pat complimented, looking around for something she could use as a weapon, not spotting anything useful though; she held back a rueful sigh, then clenched her fists and let them flame up, figuring that the guy wouldn't notice in his panicked state and that, even if he did, it could be written off as part of his nightmare.

"Hey!" she called out when the dog snarled and moved closer to the man again, slower this time, "hey, doggie! Good dog, over here!" For a moment, she felt quite dumb, talking to a dog like that; then, the glowing red eyes focused on her, and the volume of the animal's growls increased again, the demon not appearing very impressed though.

"I can do that, too, you know", she snarled while Willow hurried to where the man now sat on the ground, staring from the dog to her partner with wide eyes – which impossibly widened even further when the black haired woman's good eye began glowing red as well and she started to growl lowly in the back of her throat, her gaze never leaving the dog's.

"Make her stop", the man whimpered, reaching out with one and clutching Willow's arm with surprising strength, "tell her not to antagonize him, he'll kill her!"

"No worries, she knows what she's doing", Willow gave back, giving her best to sound soothing and reassuring; the man just let out a whimper in reply, then moved even closer to her and buried his face in her shoulder when the dog let out a shockingly loud growl and jumped, Willow forcing herself to not look away as well when the large, muscular body collided with her partner.

A low grunt came from Pat as she went down, the dog on top of her; snarling, she grabbed the thick fur with both hands, the stench of burning hair filling the air as she pushed him back, his jaws snapping shut inches from her throat moments later, making the animal growl even louder in obvious dismay.

"Good dogs don't bite", the demon scolded in reply to the growling, glad that none of the acid saliva had hit her during the few short moments the dog had been on top of her; in response, the animal started circling her, growling and snarling, quite the similar expression on Pat's face as she turned with him, not letting him out of her sight for a second, her brain racing as she tried to figure out how to end this quickly. Before she could come up with the perfect way for this though, the dog jumped at her again, now eerily quiet; reacting purely on instinct, she sidestepped easily, then threw herself forward and on the large animal's back as it skittered to a halt, figuring that if neck breaking had worked before, it'd also work now.

Not even noticing that she was growling again, Pat grabbed the dog's head as tight as she could, making sure to keep her fingers away from his jaw; for a moment, the animal squirmed and fought beneath her, then she jerked his head roughly to the right, the neck breaking with an audible crunch and the dog going limp beneath her.

"Did she kill him?" the man wanted to know in a tiny voice, his face still hidden against Willow's shoulder; she nodded, then realized he couldn't see that, giving her best to sound kind when she replied verbally as well. "Yes, she did, you can look up again."

Immediately, the man let go of her, then jumped up and rushed to where the demon was now standing, next to the dead dog; she just had time to make the flames flickering around her fists vanish, then he had almost tackled her and hugged her fiercely, sobbing his heart out while she just stood there, looking quite bewildered.

"Thank you!" the man cried, nearly impossible to understand thanks to how hard he was crying, "I thought it would kill me! That was so awful!"

"Well, it's over now", Pat gave back, finally moving one hand to pat him on the back, giving Willow a scolding look when the witch couldn't help herself, but just had to grin at the sight, "so no worries, you're safe now, pal…"

"Thank you", the man sobbed again as an answer, tightening his hug around her; feeling more awkward than ever, the demon patted his back again, then even muttered "There, there", this time deciding to ignore it when she heard her partner giggle slightly.

Finally, the guy pulled back from the hug, to the taller woman's obvious relief; he wiped his nose, then looked up at her and thanked her once more – before he turned and hurried off, clearly eager to get home after this frightening encounter.

"Look", Willow gained Pat's attention again moments later, distracting her from the sight of the practically fleeing man, "the dog is… dissolving or something, not just vanishing like that demon did…"

"I wonder if that means anything", the demon pondered out loud while she watched how the dog practically liquefied into a puddle of black goo, soft sizzling noises accompanying the gross process, "we should call Giles and tell him what just happened, maybe that'll help him with research… And also, we know now it's not just us."

"Good idea", Willow agreed, already getting her cell phone out of her pocket, "I just hope he won't ask us to come back for more research, honestly, I'm tired, I just want to go home and get some rest."

"Me too, after all that action", Pat agreed at once, momentarily surprising the witch – after all, fighting usually made her blood well up and gave her certain needs which had nothing to do with resting.

"Let's hope that'll be all for tonight", the demon went on, either not noticing her girlfriend's surprise or deciding not to acknowledge it, "if I have to fight any other nightmare creature, I'll really lose my temper."

"And we don't want that to happen", Willow smirked, making the taller woman grin back and shrug; she bent down for a quick kiss, then the witch finally dialled Giles' number, not surprised when he picked up at once – even if he had called an end to their research session, she'd known that he'd still go through his books until his eyes would water.

"Hi Giles, it's me", she greeted him after his curious "Hello?", "we might have some information which might help with figuring this out."

"Just a moment, I'll get something to write", the Watcher gave back at once; a low thump came through the line when he put the phone down, then Willow heard him walk a few steps, followed by some rustling, before he picked the phone up again and asked her what had happened.

"At first some demon attacked us", she let him know, "which was part of one of Pat's nightmares, but after she'd killed him, he just vanished. And after that, we heard some guy screaming for help and when we found him, he was threatened by a huge nasty dog, which we got rid of as well, but it didn't just vanish like the demon, it kinda… dissolved. Into some nasty black stuff."

"That might be very helpful", Giles let her know, scribbling down what she had told him on his end of the line, "the fact that the dog didn't just vanish might mean that whatever is responsible for this is growing stronger…"

"That'd be bad", Willow grimaced, "but it'd be just typical if it'd turn out to be true. Well, just wanted to tell you this, we're still on our way home, thanks to those incidents…"

"Oh, well I won't keep you much longer then", Giles gave back at once, "I'll call you in case I find out something new, alright?"

"Alright", the redhead agreed, then said goodbye and ended the call, giving her partner a dismayed look afterwards while she tucked the phone back into her pocket.

"Giles thinks that the dissolving instead of vanishing means that the power behind this is getting stronger", she let the taller woman know, grasping her hand as they started walking again, "and I'm afraid he's right."

"Unfortunately, he usually is about such things", the demon agreed, not liking the thought much, either, "but until we found out more, we can't know for sure, so let's hope for the best."

Nodding, Willow smiled up at her, making her return the smile at once; then, they both fell silent as they continued the walk back to their home, now both eager to get back to the apartment and enjoy as much calm time there as they might get, both of them aware that, with the threat at hand, there might not be many chances to rest and relax in the immediate future.

* * *

Quite some time later, Willow had made herself comfortable on the couch, trying to ignore the new unpleasant situation for the time being and to focus on the chapters of the textbook she was supposed to read for one of her classes until next Tuesday; to her left, Pat was lounging in her favourite armchair, reading a book of her own – albeit one which had nothing to do with college or any class, since it was one of the thrillers she preferred – and listening to what the redhead always called "her metal stuff" via headphones, not wanting to disturb her partner's learning with too loud music.

She was so engrossed in both the book and the music that she didn't notice that, for the last five minutes, Willow hadn't been focusing on her book, but on her, watching her with a small smile curling her lips; even though she was well aware of how the demon's worst nightmares could endanger her, should they keep on coming true, she forgot about all of that for now, allowing herself a minute of just dwelling on how happy she was with everything in her life right now, and on how big a part the taller woman had contributed to that.

Her smile widened slightly as she thought of that, then finally made herself focus on her textbook again; she only managed to read one paragraph though, then the phone rang and tore her out of her concentration, making her flinch slightly as the shrill ringtone broke the silence. To her slight amusement, it apparently was loud enough to be heard even over quite loud music, since Pat jumped in her chair as well, then let her book drop into her lap and pulled out the earphones, sounding quite dry when she spoke up, her words making the redhead giggle and nod.

"Bet that's Giles with some dire news about our little nightmare problem", the demon stated while Willow got up from the couch and took hold of the phone, frowning when she looked at the display and saw that it wasn't Giles calling, but Buffy.

"You lost that bet", she then let her partner know, "it's not Giles, it's Buffy." Curious what the Slayer might want at this late hour, she pushed the button which took the call and held the phone to her ear, only to be surprised again moments later when Dawn's voice came from the speaker, the surprise turning to worry though when she heard the hint of panic in the teenager's voice.

"Willow? Pat? Which one of you is it? Hello?" Dawn demanded to know, her voice trembling just enough to let the witch notice, prompting her concern to rise even further while she told her that it was her and asked her what was wrong.

"Buffy left for patrol an hour ago", the brunette let her know, still struggling to keep her calm so she'd be able to tell the redhead what exactly was wrong, "and shortly after she'd gone, a bunch of vampires came, they're surrounding the house and are throwing stones through the window and hammer on the door, I'm scared Willow! I tried to call Buffy, but she didn't answer!"

"She might be in a fight right now, too", the redhead gave back, then realized that this maybe hadn't been the best thing to say if she wanted to calm Dawn down, quickly speaking on, her words making her partner look slightly worried, as well. "Try to remain calm, and stay where you are, okay? Don't open the door, and don't worry about the windows, you know they can't come in without invitation… Pat and I will be there as fast as we can, and we'll get rid of them, so no worries."

"Come quickly, please", Dawn sniffled in reply, while in the background, Willow could hear the sound of another window being smashed, accompanied by the jeers and yells of the vampires, "I'm scared…"

"I know", the witch gave back, "we'll be fast, I promise." She reminded Dawn once more to stay where she was, then hung up, quickly explaining to Pat what was going on; the only response was that the demon threw her book on the table, then shut off her MP3 player and got up, making her way into the bedroom, where she kept a chest of weapons next to her side of the bed.

While the demon was getting a weapon, Willow moved to one of the living room cupboards, finding what she had been looking for there – a wooden box filled with the various ingredients she used for her spells regularly, along with several leather pouches containing already mixed and prepared powders, the witch quickly choosing the one which held the mixture for the spell to produce artificial sunlight.

Just as she put the pouch into her pocket, Pat returned from the bedroom, carrying her favourite weapon, the large, double-bladed axe; the redhead wasn't surprised to see she had chosen that one, figuring that, with nightmares most likely coming true all over town, the people who might see them on their way to the Summers house wouldn't pay her much attention even if she'd walk through the streets carrying the weapon unconcealed – not that they seemed to care much even in normal circumstances, being the residents of a town like Sunnydale.

"Ready to go?" she asked, making the taller woman nod before she gestured at the box of magic supplies and asked what Willow would take along, smirking slightly at the witch's reply. "Sunlight-in-a-bag, it'll surely help if there are too many for you to fight alone. Are you only taking that axe?"

"Nope", Pat reassured her partner, "I also got a dagger, just in case. And a stake, of course."

"You're armed to the teeth then", Willow giggled, making Pat's smirk widen while she nodded; then, they both made their way to the small anteroom, quickly putting on their shoes and jackets there before they hurried off to the Summers house, eager to get there before the vampires might come up with any plans to get Dawn out of the house.


	7. Chapter 7

To Willow's relief, none of the vampires had been able to figure out how to get inside the house or how to make Dawn come outside; they were standing in a circle around the house, a few of them even sitting on the trees so they could look into the first floor windows, most of them broken by now, all of the vampires yelling insults and threats at the house.

Without bothering to say a word, Pat sped up slightly, raising the axe as she moved; it sliced through the necks of two vampires before the others even realized what was going on, their attention focusing on the witch and the demon moments after the first two kills of the black haired woman had exploded into clouds of dusts.

"The Slayer's friends!" one of them shouted, to the grim amusement of the demon sounding slightly fearful; she gave him a nasty grin, then her axe swung at him, and seconds later, he let out a low gurgle as the sharp blade dug deep into his chest, his eyes briefly widening – before he was dusted as well, the remaining vampires growling and snarling at the demon, none of them making any moves to attack her though.

"Come on", she taunted, hearing how a few feet behind her, Willow started mumbling the words of the spell and knowing that she had to keep the vampires busy until she'd have finished it, "why so shy? You guys only good at terrorizing teenagers, but you shit your pants when someone shows up who knows how to fight back?"

In response, one of the vampires stepped forward, clenching his fists; when he noticed that no one else was moving though, the snarl vanished from his face and he momentarily looked insecure – before his gaze wandered upwards and he smiled again, an evil glint entering his eyes. Immediately, Pat looked up as well, but even though she had reacted fast, it had been too slow to make getting out of the way possible as the vampire dropped down from the tree he'd been sitting on and landed right on top of her; his weight and the impact was enough to throw her down, a low grunt escaping her as she got smashed down to the grass face first.

Before she could try to come back to her feet and throw the vampire off in the process, he had taken firm hold of a fistful of her hair; he jerked her head upwards, then slammed her face against the ground again, grinning nastily when he repeated the move, the other vampires cheering him on and calling out encouragement.

Deciding that the time for playing nice was over, Pat grit her teeth and clenched her fists, trying to ignore the pain when the vampire on top of her smashed her head down once more; and seconds later, she was burning all over, the vampire howling in surprise and pain when the fire quickly spread to him, making him jump up and beat down on the flames that were flickering on his clothes, burning the skin and flesh beneath the fabric.

Growling loud enough to match the yells of the burning vampire, the demon almost sprang to her feet, for a moment even considering to change into her more furry form of appearance; before she could do so though, Willow said the last few words of the spell behind her, ending it by throwing the powder she had brought along up into the air just as she said the last syllable, the powder igniting and turning into a ball of light so bright that Pat had to squeeze her good eye shut, and thus didn't see how the vampires all around screamed and threw up their hands as the artificial sunlight took effect on them. Abruptly, the screams ended as one by one, the vampires were dusted; and once the night was quiet around them again, Pat dared to open her eye again, smirking at the piles of dust all around her, her gaze moving to her partner afterwards, the redhead having a proud and wide grin on her face.

"That worked like a charm!" she then stated the obvious, "just like it said in the book!"

"Very well done", the demon smirked, then suddenly grimaced; Willow gave her a worried look, but before she could ask what was wrong, the taller woman cleared her throat – and then spat a shockingly large glob of blood on the ground, giving it a sour look afterwards.

"Oh my", Willow let out at the sight, for a moment not sure if her disgust or her worry was bigger, "are you sure you're okay?"

"Just fine", the taller woman reassured her, "let's better go check on Dawn now, the poor girl's probably still quite freaked out."

Nodding, the redhead made her way to the front door and knocked it, not wanting to just walk inside and maybe startle Dawn even further; after a minute of silence, the brunette's voice came up behind the wood, trembling slightly and still sounding quite fearful. "Go away, I won't invite you in, just wait until my friends get here!"

"It's me", Willow let her know, "we got here and got rid of them all, open the door please Dawnie…"

Even while she still had been talking, she already had heard the key turn in the lock; and the moment she'd finished, the door almost flew open and Dawn came rushing outside, right into the redhead's arms, clinging to her, a shudder running through her when Willow returned the embrace.

"There, there", the witch said soothingly, "it's all okay now, we got rid of them, just as we said."

"I'm so glad you came", Dawn gave back, finally pulling back a bit from the embrace so she could look at the redhead, "there were so many of them, I didn't know what to do, and if Buffy had gone up against them alone…"

"That might have ended badly", Willow agreed, briefly thinking about the nightmare Buffy had had when she'd been unconscious, "it's good that you called us."

"Yup", Pat agreed, lighting up a cigarette and smiling at Dawn, the teenager immediately smiling back at her, "it's a pity you didn't see it, Willow did her sunlight-in-a-bag thing and fried them all."

"Oh, I wished I could have seen that", Dawn sighed at once, giving the witch a glum look, "I always miss the good stuff in such situations!"

"Well, you wouldn't have seen much", Willow smiled, "the light from the spell is so bright that you shouldn't look at it anyway, or you might go blind."

"Good thing it's so bright, it flash-fried all the vamps", Pat commented, smirking; smiling back at her, Willow nodded, once more glad that she had brought along the powder for the spell, not wanting to think about what might have happened if she hadn't and Pat would've had to fight them all on her own.

"Buffy's gonna be mad about the windows", Dawn now distracted her from those thoughts, looking at the smashed windows with dismay, "hopefully Xander can help with replacing them…"

"I'm sure he will", Willow reassured her, "and Buffy won't mind so much, damage has been done to that house so often since you moved here, she'll be glad that you are okay."

"I'm glad you are okay", Buffy's voice came from behind the group, startling them all and making them jump, "but what exactly happened while I was on patrol?"

"Jeez, Buffy", Pat reprimanded before anyone could answer her question, "don't sneak up on people like that!"

"I didn't sneak up on anyone", the Slayer defended herself, "I walked up normally, you guys just didn't notice me. So what happened here while I was on patrol?"

"A bunch of vampires surrounded the house", Dawn let her know in reply, making her eyes widen, "I tried to call you, but you didn't take the call, so I called Willow and they came and killed them all."

Frowning, Buffy got out her cell phone in reply, looking at the display, a look of dismay appearing on her face when she realized that it was dark, her voice rueful when she looked up at her sister again and explained the reason for why she hadn't been able to take the call. "The battery must have gone empty while I was on patrol… Sorry about that…"

"No problem, as I said, Pat and Willow came and saved me", Dawn smiled, "but the stupid vampires broke almost all the windows…"

"I don't care about the windows as long as you're okay", Buffy reassured her, "I'll call Xander tomorrow and ask him to replace them, but we should board them up for now…"

"I'll help with that", Pat offered, making the Slayer smile and nod; Willow let her know that she'd help, as well, and together, the group entered the house to start working, none of them noticing the figure standing on the other side of the street, watching them with an annoyed expression and clenched fists, muttering curse words and promises of vengeance.

* * *

"There", Buffy stated an hour later, satisfied as she looked at the final board she had nailed over the last broken window, "all done, that should do until we can replace them."

"If Xander and you need help with that, as well, give us a call", Willow smiled, making her best friend smile back and nod; then, she thanked the couple once more for dropping by and helping Dawn out, something she had done a dozen times already by now, and thus prompting both the witch and the demon to give her annoyed looks.

"Stop with the thanking, now", Pat almost commanded, "we've told you a dozen times by now, that's what we're here for."

"Yup", Willow agreed, "if you thank us one more time, I'm gonna put some muting spell on you or something."

"You're supposed to use your powers for good", Buffy scolded, rolling her eyes when the witch pointed out that making her stop with saying "Thanks" would be considered a good thing; deciding to ignore that, she told the redhead to be careful on the way home, making her nod in reply.

"We'll just go straight home", she then let her know, "and try to get some rest now, because tomorrow, if we're not helping with new windows, Giles will want to go on researching."

"Most likely", Buffy agreed, "but take care anyway, with that nightmare-coming-true stuff, who knows what might happen."

"Hopefully, nothing", Pat muttered, making her way to the front door with her partner and the Slayer, Dawn staying in the living room where she'd made herself comfortable on the couch, "I've done enough fighting for one day."

"I never thought I'd hear you say that", Buffy teased, making Willow giggle while the demon just gave her a sour look; she smiled back innocently, then watched how her friends put on their shoes and jackets, holding back the urge to tell them once more to be careful.

"See you tomorrow", she said instead, earning another nod from both, in perfect unison; she smiled at the couple once more, then they said their goodbyes to each other, the blonde making sure to lock the door after her friends had left, then went to join her sister in the living room, eager to give her some semblance of normality after the exciting and decidedly abnormal events of the evening.


	8. Chapter 8

In the next morning, the group met at Giles' house after a call he had made to all of them and had told them he had found something out; even though Pat had already had a coffee and her morning cigarette by the time she arrived there with Willow, she still looked grumpy, only grunting when Giles greeted her, her grumpiness making him smile slightly while he asked her if she wanted some coffee.

"Make it strong", the demon grumbled, sitting down on the couch; the Watcher nodded, then moved into the kitchen, wisely already having made some coffee before the other members of the gang had started arriving.

"I did", he called out, "I'm well aware of your dislikes of early morning meetings by now."

"You better found out something good", Pat grumbled in reply, prompting the Brit to reassure her that he had as he returned to the living room and handed the cup of coffee to her; she grumbled something which might have been a "Thanks", then took a long sip, looking a tiny bit less grumpy afterwards.

"I'll tell you as soon as the others are here", Giles let her know, sitting down and taking off his glasses to clean them, "and on second thought, I'm not sure if I found out something good, but at least it will be helpful."

"Okay", the demon shrugged, then took another large gulp of her coffee; Willow gave her a brief smile, as always amused by how much of a morning grouch her partner was, then checked her watch, frowning when she saw that the others were late. As if that thought had been some sort of cue, the door opened and Buffy entered with Dawn in tow, greeting the three already present members of the Scoobie Gang cheerfully, raising an eyebrow when Pat merely grunted in reply, the witch shrugging and giving her best friend an apologetic look.

"Let's hope Xander and Anya arrive soon", she then stated, "I wanna hear what Giles found out."

"Me too", Buffy agreed at once, "so we can put an end to this, before all the really bad nightmares start coming true."

"You mean the one about all of us ending as vampire food wasn't really bad already?" Pat grumbled, making the Slayer shrug before she pointed out that she had seen much worse things and had much worse nightmares than that; the demon looked as if she wanted to give a snarky reply, but before she could do so, the door practically burst open and Anya stormed in, followed by a distraught looking Xander, making them all look at her in surprise.

"This has to end!" Anya nearly shouted the moment all eyes were on her, "right now! Giles, tell us how to end this!"

"What happened?" Willow demanded to know, worried, "are you alright?"

"We woke up and the bed was full of—", Xander started, only to have Anya butt in, her voice showing just a hint of panic.

"Bunnies!" she yelled, making Pat and Giles flinch, "the bed was full of bunnies!"

"How dreadful", the demon dryly commented, unimpressed when Anya glared at her, "what were they trying to do, twitch you to death with their cute little noses?"

"Nothing is cute about bunnies!" Anya shrieked, and as if saying the word for the third time was some sort of spell or charm, a bunny suddenly sat on the living room table, looking as confused as bunnies were capable off, its nose twitching as it glanced around. With an ear-splitting shriek, Anya nearly jumped into Xander's arms, her eyes never leaving the bunny; grumbling at the ex-demon to be quiet, Pat grabbed the animal by the scruff of its neck and carried it past the trembling Anya to the front door, putting the bunny on the ground outside and amusing the rest of the gang by telling it in a surprisingly kind voice to "hop along".

"What if another one appears?" Anya cried out while Pat closed the door again, "what if there will be bunnies everywhere until—" Again, a bunny popped in existence, this time on the ground right at Anya's feet; she yelled once more, then jumped backwards, nearly making Xander fall over, the young man flailing his arms as he tried to keep his balance, managing to keep from falling down in the last second.

"Stop saying that word!" Buffy snapped, "every time you say it, one appears, can't you see?"

"So when I say bunnies, a bunny appears?" Anya demanded to know, and two more bunnies did just that, prompting Giles to shoot her an annoyed look, his voice filled with the same emotion when he spoke up. "Apparently, they do, so I suggest you do what Buffy said and stop saying that word."

"How is this possible?" Anya wanted to know, this time heeding the Slayer's advice and avoiding that certain word while Pat sighed, then moved to pick up the three new bunnies and put them outside as well, telling them to join their buddy out there; while she moved back to the couch and sat down next to her partner, Giles cleared his throat, making sure he had everyone's attention before he spoke up, starting the explanation he had called them all here for.

"It is possible because the demon behind the current situation is getting stronger", he let them know, holding up the book in which he'd found the information they all had been looking for, "if what I found in here is fully correct, it awakes in regular intervals of thirty years and makes the worst nightmares of the town where it rests come true. It feeds on the fear and other negative emotions that come from this, until it is strong enough to rest for another thirty years."

"At least it's not gonna end the world once it is strong enough", Buffy commented, "but we'll take it down anyway, before someone gets seriously hurt or even dies."

"That probably happened by now anyway", Anya shrugged, "but I agree with Buffy, we have to kill it before it makes even more bun—"

"Don't say it!" Pat, Buffy, Willow and Xander snapped in perfect unison, making Dawn and Giles exchange a surprised look, the teenager mumbling "Impressive" to herself afterwards while the Watcher just put the book back on the table, with an amused glint in his eyes.

"Sorry", the ex-demon meekly replied, briefly looking around afterwards to make sure that not saying the nasty word fully hadn't resulted in a bunny, relieved when she couldn't spot one anywhere.

"So where does this demon hang out?" Buffy moved the conversation back to the current crisis, "at the cemetery, like all its pals? Or somewhere else?"

"It prefers to witness the mayhem it causes with its powers", Giles explained in reply, "it is easier for the demon to feed when it's close to the person whose nightmares are coming true."

"So we just wait until a nightmare comes true again and then see if we can find it?" Buffy frowned, not looking very convinced, "that sounds too easy."

"It does sound easy", Giles agreed, "but it might be harder than you think right now, keep in mind that this demon has the power to make all our worst nightmares come true, and it will use just that against us when we encounter it."

"How real can those nightmares get?" Willow wanted to know, frowning as she remembered the incidents of the last day, "when we encountered that demon yesterday, I got hurt, but it was gone again the moment the demon had been killed."

"The stronger it gets, the more real they will get", Giles let her know, not telling her what she had been wanting to hear, "and eventually, any injuries sustained will remain even after the nightmare has been ended."

"So if a bunny bites me, the bite won't—", Anya started, and with an audible _plop _sound, yet another bunny appeared in Giles' lap, making him jump while the ex-demon let out a shriek and Pat snapped "Dammit, Anya!", glaring at the wide-eyed woman before she snatched the bunny from Giles' lap and briskly carried it to the front door, putting it outside, where it hopped off to join the other bunnies already out there.

"If you say that word one more time, I'll gag you", the demon threatened after she had sat down again, making Anya scratch the back of her head sheepishly, Buffy rolling her eyes before she once more returned the attention of the group to the demon they'd have to deal with.

"Even if it can make our nightmares come true in battle, we'll have to face it", she pointed out, "or it'll never stop, even if it just appears every thirty years."

"Yes", Giles agreed, "and at least I have some good news about all of this, the demon is perfectly vulnerable to all kinds of weapons. Also, it appears that it can only focus on one nightmare at a time, at least until it gained full strength, so, if we are lucky, it will choose a nightmare from one of us that won't keep the rest from fighting."

"First we'll have to find the demon, though", Pat pointed out, "and with all the people in this town it could be tormenting right now, that might not be easy."

"Why? We'll just go where people are screaming", Anya suggested, shrugging at the looks she received for that from the others; then, Giles cleared his throat, making them all look at him again, his voice a bit rueful when he spoke up again. "As… unconventional as Anya's idea is, it might just be what we need to do to find the demon. I suggest that we form teams of two and search town until we find something."

"Can't we make him come here somehow?" Buffy wanted to know, not liking the idea, "if one of those teams finds the demon, who knows how long it will take the rest to catch up then, and until then, it might have hurt or killed one of us, I don't like this plan."

"Me neither", Pat agreed, Xander and Willow nodding as well, "that will be too dangerous. And, hey, it has been sending us nightmares before, right? So it must have been around to do that. I'm kinda sure it'll come back and try again, maybe Slayer fear is having a special taste or something."

"Possible", Giles agreed after thinking about this for a moment, "maybe we should all stay together then, in case the demon shows up again."

"I like that better than just running around until we find something", Buffy nodded, "seeing how many of our nightmares came true already, I somehow doubt it will take long until it'll come back."

"Shall we just sit around here then and wait?" Anya wanted to know, sounding dismayed, her frown deepening at the reply Xander gave her. "No, we'll be at Buffy's house and replace her windows. Buffy, I brought the glass we'll need, I got it from work, they ordered too much for one of the projects."

"Oh, that's great", Buffy beamed at him, "so we'll all go to my place and repair my windows there while we wait for our demon to show up, sounds like fun."

"Not my idea of fun", Anya mumbled, then sighed and added "but fine, let's do that", making Xander smile at her; Giles nodded, and they all got up from their seats, leaving the house together to walk to Buffy's home, all of them hoping that the demon would do them the favour and show up there so the whole situation could be resolved quickly.


	9. Chapter 9

During the walk to the Summers' house, Willow noticed once more that Pat was unusually grumpy and quiet this morning, something which should have changed by now, after she'd had not just one coffee, but two; the fact that the demon was walking with her hands stuffed into the pockets of her jacket instead of holding hands with her only added to her concern, since they hardly ever walked anywhere without grasping each other's hand.

"Are you okay?" she finally asked, moving a bit closer to the taller woman and keeping her voice low so no one else would hear and maybe feel the need to butt in, "you're even grumpier than usual today. And quiet, when you're not snapping at Anya for making more bunnies, that is."

"I'm fine", Pat gave back after a moment of silence, not bothering to add anything else, a fact which only worried Willow further, making her give the black haired woman a concerned look while she moved another step closer and hooked one hand into the crook of the demon's arm.

"Are you sure?" she wanted to know, glad that no one else of the group was paying attention on her partner and her, "I don't want to be pushy or annoying or anything, but… you don't seem fine."

In response, the demon looked at her for a few moments, then surprised her by calling out to Buffy and letting her know that they'd catch up, the Slayer nodding her agreement with a curious look on her face, not asking any questions though; afterwards, Pat stopped walking and sighed, getting out her cigarettes and lighting one of them up before she finally replied.

"Okay, you know me too well, and no, I'm not fine. Not fully. You know, when that treacherous Jim was here and told you that story about me leaving the little group then to kill again… That happened to become one of your nightmares, didn't it?"

"More like a fear", Willow admitted, frowning – before the implications of the question hit her, and her eyes went wide.

"Wait", she started, looking up at her partner with fresh concern in her eyes, "you're feeling that need again now, aren't you?"

"Yes", the demon confessed after a second, with another sigh, "since I woke up today. I'm giving my best to ignore it, or to withstand it, whatever, but if this demon gets any stronger and manages to increase it…"

"We'll have to get rid of it before that happens, then", Willow decided in reply, "and it means a lot to me that you're not just giving in to it…"

"Of course not", Pat gave back, smiling wryly at her, "at least not right now, as I said, I've been giving my best to ignore it… I just hope it won't get stronger."

"Me too", Willow grimaced, "I mean, you'd come back once the demon is dead and the influence is gone, at least I hope you would, but I'd hate it to be away from you…"

"Same here", the taller woman agreed at once, "so let's kill that demon quickly, before its powers grow stronger and it can kinda force me to leave."

Nodding, Willow moved closer to her, smiling when her partner embraced her after a moment and pulled her even closer; she stood on the tips of her toes to steal a quick kiss, then suggested that they shouldn't tell the others for now, since it only would make them worry unnecessarily.

"Not so unnecessarily maybe", Pat pointed out, "but yeah, we shouldn't tell them, not yet, they'll know anyway in case that need gets too big."

Willow nodded her agreement to that, briefly tightening her hug on her partner and demanding yet another kiss; afterwards, she suggested to catch up with the rest of the group now, the demon moving back from the embrace as an answer and relieving the witch even further by grasping her hand before they started walking again, quickly catching up with the others again.

"Everything okay?" Buffy wanted to know as they reached the group again, Willow nodding at once, giving her best friend a smile, glad when this seemed to convince the blonde, since she just smiled back after a moment.

"You both looked kinda serious", the Slayer added, "so I was worried there for a moment."

"No need to", Willow reassured her, "everything's just fine…"

"Good then", Buffy smiled, momentarily making Willow feel bad about lying to her – before she shrugged it off, telling herself that it'd only make Buffy worry unnecessarily if she told her about Pat's troubles and that this would distract her best friend from the upcoming fight against the nightmare demon.

"I hope we'll get that demon soon", she changed the topic, not very subtle, but if Buffy had noticed, she didn't comment on it, merely nodding, briefly glancing at Pat – who had gone back to the glum and brooding look she'd been showing the whole time, once more making her wonder if things really were as okay as Willow had claimed – before she replied, her words making Willow smile slightly. "Indeed, before it does worse things than give Anya the power to create bunnies. Even though Anya would probably disagree about how that is not too bad."

"Let's just hope she won't say that word again", the redhead giggled in reply, making Buffy laugh as well and, to the Slayer's happiness, even managed to put a little smile on Pat's face, the demon sounding just a tiny bit amused when she added her two cents to the conversation. "Yeah, cause if she makes any more bunnies, I'm gonna yell at her, that was so annoying back at Giles' place."

"I agree", Giles threw in from where he walked a few steps ahead of the three women, Anya and Xander even further ahead and thus not hearing any of the conversation, "and I'm glad you put them all outside, Pat, I don't want to imagine what would have happened if they had stayed in my home and had started to mate."

"Many, many bunnies", the taller woman smirked, the Watcher grimacing in reply; before he could say anything though, Anya suddenly called out to them, gesturing up ahead excitedly, momentarily making them all wonder if she had spotted more bunnies – before they also saw the reason for her outcry, namely a woman running from what looked like a bunch of normal guys at first glance, the demonic and twisted faces only being noticed by the group when they took a closer look.

"Nightmare?" Pat asked, already reaching for the dagger she'd kept concealed beneath her jacket until now, having figured that going out without a weapon would be a bad idea with the situation at hand; already looking around for the responsible demon, Buffy nodded, a plan quickly forming while the woman came rushing closer to them, yelling for help.

"Xander, Anya", she spoke sharply, "get the girl out of here, but don't move too far away. Willow, try to stop one or two of them with magic, and Giles, help her if you can, and keep an eye out for our demon… and Pat, you're up to kicking ass with me?"

"I always am", the demon gave back, smirking; Buffy smirked back at her, then flexed her fingers, taking in the group of men still chasing the yelling woman, judging their strength and speed as she watched the muscles of their legs tense and relax beneath their tight jeans and noticed their broad arms and shoulders.

"Help me!" the woman cried out as she reached the group, by now panting heavily, sweat gleaming on her forehead, "please, help me!"

"We will", Xander told her, giving his best to sound kind and soothing, "just come with my girlfriend here and me, and our friends here will take care of those… guys."

Nodding with a thankful look on her face, the woman let Xander and Anya lead her into the relatively secure area of a nearby side alley; there, they'd be able to watch the fight which surely would start soon, but hopefully wouldn't be in any danger of getting involved into said fight.

"Hey, you handsome boys", Buffy called out to the advancing men, eager to gain their attention, "why don't you take on someone of your own size?"

"Yeah", Pat agreed, lazily tossing the dagger from hand to hand, "come on, it's been a while since I killed something, I'm just in the right mood."

The men let out low growls and guttural sounds in reply, probably attempting to talk, but not quite managing; not wanting to get caught in the fight, Willow and Giles moved a few steps backwards, the Watcher looking this way and that as he tried to spot the nightmare demon who had to be responsible for this, asking himself what kind of nightmare exactly they were dealing with here, not wanting to imagine what those demonic men might have done to the woman if they'd managed to catch her.

Obviously though, the woman had been wiped from their minds, at least for now; the five of them kept growling, now moving slower as they approached Buffy and Pat, clenching their fists, the Brit noticing after a closer look that two of them were actually drooling, grimacing in dismay.

"They're quite gross, aren't they", Willow said out loud what he was thinking, keeping her gaze on her partner and her best friend though, watching how the men finally came into fighting distance and were promptly greeted by a punch from Pat and a kick from Buffy.

"Indeed, they are", Giles agreed, "let's not think about what they were after when they were chasing that poor woman, I hope Xander and Anya will manage to calm her down."

"Me too", Willow gave back, watching how Pat slashed at one of the men with her dagger and seemingly effortlessly cut his throat, the man grasping at the deep wound and gurgling loudly as he went down, "the poor girl was so freaked out…"

Nodding, Giles looked around again, frowning when he couldn't spot the nightmare demon anywhere; next to him, Willow kept her attention on the fight, ready to help with magic the moment it should be necessary, but from how the battle was going, it didn't seem as if that would be the case anytime soon. She couldn't help it, but just had to smile when she watched how Pat finished another one of the demonic men off, burying her dagger in his chest and yanking it back out while next to her, Buffy got rid of a third one by breaking his neck; she briefly wondered if this fight would help to lessen Pat's need to kill again, then a tingling feeling at the base of her spine distracted her from those thoughts, and she looked around as a shiver suddenly ran through her, asking herself what was going on.

"Willow?" she heard Giles next to her, sounding worried, "are you alright?"

She looked at him with the intent to answer him, and tell him about the strange feeling she suddenly was having; before she could even open her mouth though, the feeling suddenly increased a hundredfold, and moments later, with the blink of an eye, Giles was gone from her side and she was in the middle of the fight instead, her eyes going wide when she realized too late what had happened – wherever the nightmare demon was hiding, it obviously was strong enough by now to use the wrong-headed logic of dreams against them, and had done just that by replacing one of the demonic men with her, putting her right in front of Pat – just as the demon had rammed her dagger forward with the intent to bury it in the man's gut.

Slowly, she looked down at herself, wondering if there shouldn't be pain while she studied the handle of the dagger her partner still was grasping; then, Pat's voice came, so full with terror and shock that she just had to look up at her again.

"Oh God", Pat brought out, finding herself unable to let go of the dagger, the blade stuck deeply in her girlfriend's stomach, all the way to the hilt, "oh God, Willow…"

Finally, the fact that she just had been stabbed seemed to reach her nervous system, since all of a sudden, there _was_ pain, and a lot of it; and then, her knees gave in beneath her and she went down, the last thing she saw before the darkness enfolded her and took her away being the wide-eyed, shocked look on her girlfriend's face.


	10. Chapter 10

The pain was the first thing Willow noticed when she opened her eyes, followed by the realization how uncomfortable it was to lie on the ground; the world seemed strange to her as she stared up into the sky, somehow blurred and out of focus, as if she was looking at it through glasses that were someone else's.

"…didn't take any ingredients with us, and I can't do it without them!" she now heard Pat, the demon sounding so upset and frantic that, for a moment, Willow wondered what had happened – until she remembered the pain and the fact that she had been stabbed in the stomach by her girlfriend, on accident, but that didn't make the wound any less painful and possibly dangerous.

"Wait, she's awake!" Buffy suddenly cried out, and moments later, her face appeared in the witch's field of view, followed by Pat's, the demon looking so pale that Willow momentarily was surprised she wasn't lying on the pavement right beside her. Again, the redhead had a chance to notice how strange her view of the world had become; the faces looking down on her where blurred, as well, but the sunlight had taken on a strangely focused quality, letting her notice how it made the red in her partner's hair stand out and how it made Buffy's shine like spun gold, and making her wonder if this was connected to the shock or the loss of blood she surely still was going through.

"I'm so sorry", the demon now distracted her from those – quite nonsensical, as she had to admit, probably another symptom of shock – thoughts, "just hold on there, okay? Giles called an ambulance, they should be here any minute, I'm trying to stop the bleeding, you'll be fine…"

Only now, she felt the pressure on her stomach along with the pain, figuring that this had to be Pat then, trying to keep the flow of blood down to a minimum; still, despite her partner's surely hard tries, she could feel that her blouse was soaked, all the way to her back, clinging to her skin uncomfortably wet.

Licking her lips, noticing how dry her mouth was, Willow tried to speak, tried to tell her it was okay and that it wasn't her fault; all she could get out though was a weak croak, then Buffy told her that she shouldn't try to talk, only to repeat Pat's words afterwards, reassuring her that she'd be alright.

"Where is that ambulance?" she heard Xander snap somewhere to her left, but couldn't find the strength to turn her head; to her alarm, the world was getting even blurrier, darkness appearing on the edges of her field of view, making her realize that she was close to fainting again, something Pat clearly had noticed as well, since she looked even more distraught than she had just a minute ago, finding herself unable to stop muttering reassuring and calming words to her wounded girlfriend.

"Don't faint again, try to stay awake", she tried to encourage her, wanting nothing more in this moment than grasping her hand, but knowing that she needed both hands to keep the pressure on the part of her shirt she had ripped off to stop the bleeding, "I know it's hard, but you can do it…"

"…not… fault", Willow croaked in reply, ignoring Buffy's advice that she shouldn't try to talk, "…demon…" For a moment, Pat didn't have an idea what she was talking about, too distraught about the whole situation to figure it out; then, it came to her and her heart clenched up as she realized what the redhead was trying to say.

"Don't talk", she repeated what Buffy had said minutes ago, briefly glancing at the wound before she went on; the dagger still was stuck in her girlfriend's stomach, but she knew that this was better than just pulling it out, momentarily relieved about the fact that she had managed to let go of it when she had seen that Willow was about to go down, not wanting to imagine how much worse the wound might have been made if she'd kept holding on to the dagger and hadn't caught the redhead when she had fallen. "You'll need your strength, just try to stay awake, okay? For me?"

"Tired", the redhead whispered in rely, a far-away look now entering her eyes, the taller woman's heart clenching up again when she felt her shiver beneath her hands, "and cold…"

"You'll be warm again soon", the demon promised her, not caring if that was a dumb thing to say, "I promise, just hold on until that ambulance arrives, alright?"

Willow looked as if she was giving her best to nod in reply, but just couldn't manage; her lips moved soundlessly as she tried to say something else, then she finally lost the fight against the darkness, startling her partner with the sight of her eyes rolling back into her head as she blacked out once more, the demon having to bite down on her tongue to keep herself from shouting at her, knowing it wouldn't lead anywhere.

"How's the bleeding?" Buffy wanted to know, craning her neck to get a look at the wound; it looked quite unsettling how the hilt of the dagger rose and fell slowly with the rhythm of the redhead's breaths, but at least she still was breathing, and from what the Slayer could see, the bleeding had slowed down a trickle, something which was quite the calming sight after how the blood had literally gushed from the wound at first, soaking the rag Pat had torn out of her shirt, her hands covered in blood as well by now.

"Better", she mumbled, her gaze now focused on the wound again as Willow had fallen unconscious once more, "but if that ambulance takes much longer… She's lost so much blood, she'll need a transfusion…"

"They'll give her everything she'll need", Buffy promised in reply, worried about how close to the edge the taller woman might be right now; so far, she was holding on remarkably well, but the blonde knew that this could change the moment the ambulance would arrive to take Willow away, putting her life into the hands of doctors and nurses, leaving the demon helpless and unable to do anything but wait.

"I know, but they'll have to arrive first", Pat now gave back, and before Buffy had the chance to reply anything, the sound of a siren came up in the distance, making them both let out a sigh of relief as they recognized it as an ambulance's, the Slayer giving her best to sound confident when she spoke up again. "There they are at last, she'll be fine now, I just know it… She has to be…"

Nodding, Pat kept focusing on her partner and on stopping the bleeding fully while the ambulance finally arrived, coming to a stop as close as possible to the small cluster of people; the back doors opened and two men jumped out with a stretcher between them, followed by a third carrying a black leather bag, asking them kindly, but still firm to move aside so they could "be of assistance to the victim", as he put it.

For a moment, Pat looked as if she didn't want to listen to the man, but just when Buffy wanted to ask her to do the same, she stopped applying pressure on the piece of cloth and moved back, watching with an unreadable expression how the paramedics started with the primary care, one of them asking the watching group what the young woman's blood type was, Buffy being the one to answer that, the man who had asked the question noting to his comrades that they should radio the hospital as soon as they were on their way so they'd have blood ready for a transfusion.

"Yes, but first, we have to get her there", the man with the leather bag replied, making his two partners nod; then, they resumed their work in silence, the witch's friends watching quietly as well, Buffy moving closer to Pat after a moment and putting one hand on her arm, nearly flinching back when the demon looked at her and she could see the self-loathing in her gaze.

"She'll be okay", the blonde quietly told her friend, "they'll take good care of her, they know what they are doing at the hospital here, I have first-hand experience. And she told you it's not your fault…"

"Of course she'd say that", Pat gave back at once, her gaze moving to the wounded redhead again, "but I was holding that dagger, you saw it… If only I had been faster, I should have stopped or something…"

"There was no way you could have reacted fast enough", Buffy let her know, hoping that the paramedics weren't paying attention to their talk, not wanting to explain how exactly it had happened that Willow had been stabbed by her girlfriend, "as you said, I saw it, that… exchange or whatever it was, it happened so fast… No one could have reacted that fast."

To her dismay, Pat didn't even bother to reply to that, not even when Giles joined the tries to take some of her guilt away by telling her that Buffy was right; she just kept watching how the paramedics finished the primary aid, two of them carefully, but quickly moving Willow on the stretcher afterwards, then lifted her and briskly carried her to the ambulance, moving the stretcher inside moments later.

"Normally, only family members are allowed to ride to the hospital with us", one of them then explained, "but I assume none of you are family, are you?"

"I'm her girlfriend", Pat gave back, fighting hard to keep her gaze from the shockingly large puddle of blood on the ground and on the man, "we've been together for years, living together and everything, I…" She realized that she was babbling and forced herself to shut up, the paramedic giving her a wry smile, obviously not seeing this for the first time, sounding surprisingly kind when he told her that she could ride with them, then; she gave him a thankful look, then briefly looked at Buffy, the Slayer immediately reassuring her that they'd meet her at the hospital, giving her arm another reassuring squeeze before she let go of her.

"See you there, then", Pat mumbled, then moved to the ambulance and climbed inside; nodding, Buffy watched how the paramedic who had told the demon she could ride with them pulled the back doors close, then the car drove off, towards the hospital, the remaining members of the ground starting to walk there without another word, their thoughts with Willow as they all hoped that the witch would be okay.


	11. Chapter 11

During all her life, Pat never had been too fond of hospitals, no matter if it was one of the more or less nasty hospices of her youth or the more modern and clean ones like the one she was at now; still, that dislike had been mild, a mere annoyance, compared to what she felt now as she sat on one of the horribly uncomfortably plastic chairs in the waiting room, doing just what the room's name implied, namely waiting for the doctor who was responsible for her partner to come and tell her that things would be fine.

Next to her, Buffy was sitting, playing with the hem of her shirt as she waited for the same thing; Giles was standing leaning against the wall opposite of the two women, cleaning his glasses again and again, making Pat wonder dully if sooner or later, the lenses would be rubbed away to nothingness.

"Anything new?" Xander's voice unexpectedly came up as he returned from the vending machine with Anya and Dawn in tow, all of them carrying bottles of soda; his face fell when Buffy answered by shaking her head, then gave him a thankful look as he started handing out the drinks, Pat just taking hers and staring at it, not opening it though.

"It might take a while until there are any news", Giles spoke up, making the young man look at him, "the wound is quite serious…"

"All of this could have been avoided", Dawn suddenly said in reply, the strange sound of her voice making them all look at her, even Pat, their eyes widening when they realized that she was speaking with two voices at once – her own and a much deeper, malicious one. "If you had just let me feed, no one would have gotten hurt. Let me finish my feeding in peace and let me go back to sleep, and I promise I won't harm anyone else of your circle."

"You", Pat snarled in reply, the bottle of soda falling to the ground and rolling away as she came to her feet and glared at the teenager, "show your face, coward, and don't go around possessing others!"

"That wouldn't have been a wise thing to do", Dawn replied, still with the freaky doubled voice, "and if you have merely an inch of wisdom, as well, you will do as I just suggested. All harm will end once I fed enough and went back to sleep."

"I will find you", the taller woman gave back, her voice now deadly calm, "and then I will kill you."

"Did you listen to a word I was saying?" Dawn demanded to know, now sounding irritated and making the whole situation quite absurd, "if you don't leave me alone, more of you will get harmed, or even killed. I have no interest in that. I just want to feed until I can go back to sleep, this world is making my head ache."

"My sympathies", Buffy dryly threw in, giving her best to hide how much it was freaking her out that the demon had chosen to possess her sister, "but you've already caused harm and pain before one of us got harmed, and I will not let you get away with it. I'd be a bad Slayer if I did."

"Bodily pain and harm are unfortunate casualties", the demon replied, now looking at the blonde with her sister's eyes, "casualties I have no real interest in. A word of warning though, the last Slayer who tried to go up against me ended up in a mental institution."

"I'm not like other Slayers, though", Buffy confidently gave back, "and I'm not afraid of you."

"Well, you can't say I didn't warn you", the nightmare demon replied, not sounding all too impressed – before Dawn's eyes suddenly rolled back into her head and she collapsed, Buffy jumping forward and catching her in the last second, keeping her from falling face first to the floor.

"That demon must be really scared of us", Giles commented, watching how Buffy carefully lowered her sister to the ground and took her head into her lap, "possessing people takes a lot of strength for demons who are not used to it."

"How do we know this one isn't?" Xander wanted to know, making the Watcher look at him, a slight smile on his lips as he replied. "The doubled voice was a dead giveaway. Demons experienced with possession take over completely, avoiding that certain effect."

"So it'll take it longer now to gain enough strength to go back to sleep", Buffy figured, "giving us more time to find and kill it."

"Which shouldn't be too hard", Pat finally spoke up again, making them all look at her, "the nightmares of the people here aren't exactly low profile."

"No", Buffy agreed, "but you'll have no part in the finding and killing, you'll stay here with Willow." She saw the look that appeared on the demon's face in reply to that and quickly continuing, not wanting the taller woman to blow up at her. "I know you're after the whole vengeance-for-my-girlfriend thing now, and I really can't say I don't understand you, but right now, you're too upset to go after a demon with such powers. Not to mention that Willow will want you right at her bedside the moment they get done with treating her and she wakes up."

"I'll find and kill that thing before that happens", Pat gave back, not really surprising Buffy – she hadn't been expecting the demon to give in so quickly, anyway.

"And the rest of you will wait here", the taller woman went on, glaring at the Slayer when she tried to say something and effectively stopping her from doing so, "I'm not taking the risk of anyone else getting hurt because of our nightmares."

"And what if it hurts you?" Buffy demanded to know, figuring that it wasn't too late yet to try a reasonable approach, "bad enough so you can't get up and demon out to heal? What should we tell Willow then?"

"Won't happen", the demon replied, "you seem to be forgetting what I've been doing for two centuries before we all met. I'll find this thing and kill it before it'll even know what hit it."

"I can't let you do this", Buffy gave back at once, crossing her arms over her chest, "not in that upset state you're in. Wait until they told us that Willow's gonna be alright and then we'll go find this thing together and kill it, alright?"

"Or you'll knock me out again?" the taller woman snarled, mimicking the blonde's position, "like the last time you didn't want me to go with you?"

"If I have to", Buffy replied, ignoring how the rest exchanged confused looks since they never had been told that particular part of their last adventure; for a few more moments, Pat kept staring at her, as if trying to figure out if she was serious – or maybe, if she should try knocking her out first – before she suddenly and heavily sat back down on her seat, her shoulders slumping, the sight giving Buffy the urge to move over to her and hug her, something which was made considerably harder by the fact that Dawn was still out cold and lying in her lap.

"It'll be alright", she thus said instead, relieved when at least, the demon looked up and at her, her voice quivering slightly when she replied, just enough to let the rest of the group notice. "Killing this thing is the only way I know how to handle this…"

"I know", the Slayer kindly gave back while behind her, Giles moved over to the demon and stopped next to her, making her gaze move to him; he gave her a small, but reassuring smile, then placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it slightly, the wordless gesture being enough to make her weakly smile back at him after a few moments.

"And we will kill that thing", Buffy went on, making the demon look at her again, "but we'll do it together. As soon as we know that Willow will be fine."

To her relief, Pat nodded her agreement to that; she gave the demon another smile, then Dawn started to stir in her lap and making her focus on her along with the rest of the group, none of them noticing the brooding look that appeared on Pat's face again the moment no one was paying attention on her anymore.

* * *

It took another two hours until finally, the door to the waiting room opened and the doctor stepped inside, looking at the small group of people with a slight smile on his face; Buffy was the first one to speak up, asking what they all wanted to know. "Is she gonna be alright?"

"Yes", the elder man replied at once, his smile widening slightly at the collective sigh of relief that came from the group as an answer to that, "I'm happy to tell you that soon, Miss Rosenberg will be as good as new. Of course, she'll have to stay here for at least two weeks, but we were able to repair the damage done by the knife and gave her enough transfusions to compensate for the blood loss. Now, I've been told her life partner is here…?"

With those words, he looked at Xander, then, when he noticed the young man holding hands with Anya, at Giles – with a slightly raised eyebrow – forcing Buffy to hold back a giggle as she realized that the paramedic hadn't bothered to tell the doctor about who exactly was Willow's "life partner", as the doctor had called it, a realization that was confirmed when Pat cleared her throat and the doctor looked at her, his second eyebrow wandering up as well when she told him that she was Willow's partner. To his credit though, he regained his composure remarkably quick, his eyebrows returning to their normal position while he smiled again, then told her that, if she wanted, she could see her partner now, for ten minutes at the most, pointing out that his patient needed her rest.

"Follow me please", he then added, making the black haired woman nod and get up from her seat; she still took the time to let the others know that she'd tell them how Willow was doing afterwards, making them nod before they watched her leave with the doctor, another relieved sigh coming from Buffy when the door had closed behind them.

"Am I glad that Will's gonna be okay", she then said, making the rest of the group nod, "I don't even want to imagine what Pat might have done if the doctor had told us much more dire news…"

"Maybe she would have gone on a bloody rampage", Anya suggested, with a hint of glee in her voice that made Xander look at her oddly, "like Willow did back then when Tara died."

"Maybe", Buffy gave back, raising an eyebrow at the ex-demon's mild joy about this possibility as well, "let's be glad we won't have to find out anytime soon."

"Indeed", Dawn agreed, "and I'm still pissed at that demon for possessing me, so once you go to kill it, kick it from me, okay?"

"I've told you I will the first twenty times you said that", Buffy gave back, smiling at her; Dawn let out a low "Hmph" noise in reply, crossing her arms over her chest, making her sister reach over and pat her arm, successfully putting a smile on her face again.

"I wonder if Willow's awake or still knocked out", the teenager then wondered aloud, "the doctor didn't say."

"I'm sure Pat will tell us", Xander shrugged, smiling at the brunette and making her nod; she shifted on the uncomfortable chair a bit, then checked her wristwatch, looking at the door again afterwards as she saw that the ten minutes the doctor had given Pat to see her girlfriend were up and that thus, she had to come back any moment now.

As the minutes ticked by and no demon returned to them though, Buffy grew more and more restless, starting to check her watch as well, her frown deepening further and further with every look she took at it; and by the time almost half an hour had passed, she realized that maybe, Pat hadn't been fully honest when she had told them that she'd be back soon and let them know about Willow then.

"Dammit", she muttered to herself, getting up from her seat and making the others look at her in surprise, prompting her to explain the reason for her dismay. "Pat's been gone for too long", she let them know, "I'll just go and check where she is, maybe some nightmare came true again or something…"

"Or maybe she left to kill that demon", Giles sighed, the blonde grimacing in reply while she nodded, exchanging a brief worried look with the others before she finally hurried off to find the taller woman.

Shifting on her seat again, Dawn kept her gaze on the door, clearly worried; obviously not as concerned, Anya wanted to know from Xander why it would be so bad if Pat had gone after the demon on her own, only to frown as well when the young man reminded her of the nightmare demon's powers in reply and pointed out that having one member of their gang badly hurt and in the hospital was bad enough.

Just as he finished explaining that, the door opened again and Buffy returned, the look on her face telling them all enough before she even opened her mouth and told them what they had been fearing they'd hear. "She's gone. The doctor said she left twenty minutes ago, right after he'd asked her to leave Willow's room."


	12. Chapter 12

"Are you sure it is wise to go alone?" Giles asked just a few minutes later, as Buffy was checking the dagger she had brought, running her thumb over the blade to make sure it was sharp, "shouldn't at least one of us come with you?"

"No", Buffy declined at once, putting the dagger back into the sheathe hidden beneath her jacket, "I don't think I'll run into the nightmare demon, you yourself said it's scared of us, so it'll stay away and try to find food somewhere else. I just want to find Pat, scold her, and get her back here so we can come up with a proper plan."

"Fine", Giles sighed out after a moment, knowing that look on the Slayer's face well and knowing that there was no use in trying to change her mind when she looked like that, "but promise to call the moment anything unexpected happens, be it nightmares coming true or encountering the demon itself."

"Sure", Buffy gave back, then smiled calmingly at him, "I'll be careful, I promise. This is a 'Let's find Willow's girlfriend before she gets herself killed' mission, not a 'Let's go kill the nasty demon' one."

"Take care, anyway", Giles told her in reply, making her nod; she asked the rest to meet her at her home, figuring that they could as well go there since at the moment, no one else would be allowed to visit Willow anyway, then hurried off, only realizing that she had no idea where to find the black haired woman when she stepped out of the hospital. For a moment, she considered getting out her cell phone and try calling her, then realized that this wouldn't do any good – if Pat was out on some sort of assassin mission to find and kill the nightmare demon, she surely would have switched her phone off to avoid discovery, should it start ringing in her pocket.

"Damn you and your hot-headed-ness", she muttered at no one in particular; she looked around once more, as if the answer would present itself on a silver plate, then just set off, figuring that sooner or later, she'd encounter another person's nightmare coming true and that the demon she was looking for surely would be around then.

"This better work out quickly, or I'll use her as a punching bag for the next fifteen training sessions", she mumbled to herself, keeping her eyes open for signs of nightmares coming true; to her endless dismay, she had to walk the streets of Sunnydale for almost an hour though until she finally encountered what she had been looking for, in the form of a teenaged boy with his back up against the wall, looking as if he wanted to melt into the stone while a group of spiders roughly the size of German shepherds were advancing slowly, as if they had all the time in the world.

"Someone help me!" the boy cried, his eyes darting left and right until his gaze landed on Buffy and turned pleading, "you, please! Over there! Help me or they'll eat me!"

"That's what I'm here for", the Slayer gave back, and then her kick already landed, sending one of the spiders flying and hitting the wall, the blonde grimacing when it splattered there.

"Damn you!" she heard a slightly familiar voice call out, so full of irritation and annoyance that she just had to turn and look, finding herself looking at a surprisingly small and frail-looking demon with green, scaly skin and brightly red eyes, the colour matching the small pair of horns which was growing out of the demon's forehead.

"I told you to stay away!" it now whined, clenching small fists in frustration, "you've ruined most of my meals since I woke up again! Why? Why do you keep doing that?"

"It's my job", Buffy gave back, kicking yet another spider and sending it off to meet the same fate as the first one she'd done this to while the boy took the chance given and ran away as fast as his legs would carry him, "and once I got rid of those spiders, I'll finish it by finishing you."

"Not afraid of spiders, are you", the nightmare demon grumbled in reply, its eyes narrowing, "let's see then…" The red glow in its eyes intensified, and all at once, strong arms wrapped around Buffy from behind, and an all too familiar voice whispered into her ear, making her eyes go wide. "Why, hello there, Slayer. Missed me?"

"You're not real", Buffy made herself say in reply, even though the grip around her felt quite real, tightening and pinning her arms to her side, "you're just an illusion, made by that small demon over there…"

"Are you sure?" Angelus wanted to know, and she could hear the cold smile on his face, the nightmare demon watching with interest, rubbing its small hands together in glee, even letting out a squealing noise when the vampire raised one hand and moved the blonde's hair aside, exposing her neck – and the scar there where he had bitten her years ago, when he had been Angel and it had been the only way to save him from the poison which had slowly been killing him.

"I remember sinking my teeth into your throat there", he muttered, "why don't we repeat that? It will show you how real I am…"

"Stop talking and do it!" the nightmare demon shrieked, "drain her, whatever, just get rid of her so I can finish feeding!"

It rubbed its hands together once more, now smiling gleefully – when it had found that nightmare of getting eaten by random vampires in the Slayer's mind a few nights ago, that already had been great, but discovering this gem in her mind now… The fear that came from her at being held by this certain vampire tasted as good as nothing else had on this spree, and the nightmare demon could barely believe how lucky it had been after all that the blonde had shown up once more.

"Drain her!" it shouted again, by now nearly bouncing on the spot, "drain her now and make her even more del—"

"Surprise", a low voice growled right next to its ear, and before it could even think of a way to react, something thin, but tough was slung around its throat and tightened, cutting off the flow of air. Helplessly, the demon started clawing at the thin, wire-like rope, to no avail though; as its concentration failed, Angelus puffed away into nothingness, and Buffy let out the breath she had been holding as she had waited for the fangs to sink into her neck, taking a moment to recover before she focused on what was going on in front of her.

Even though she had been pissed off at Pat when she had set out to find her, she had to admit that was more than glad to see the demon now; and since Willow once had told her about what method she had favoured for assassination when she still had been working, the Slayer also realized at once what the taller woman was doing, a slight smile curling her lips as she watched how the nightmare demon was slowly, but steadily choked to death by the length of piano wire Pat kept in a tight sling around its throat.

"Want me to make this quick?" she wanted to know, her hand already resting on the handle of her dagger; before she could pull it out though, the demon shook her head, tightening the sling of piano wire even further, a malicious smirk on her face when she replied. "No, I'm fine with seeing this bastard die slowly, after what happened to Willow."

"Okay", the Slayer shrugged, folding her arms across her chest and just watching; under ordinary circumstances, she wouldn't have liked it to let any creature be tortured like this, but in this case, she couldn't really say that she minded or didn't understand. Gritting her teeth, Pat kept her grip on the piano wire, even when the nightmare demon finally gave up on clawing at the wire and just started thrashing and flailing; it let out helpless choking noises, then suddenly held completely still, somehow managing to talk despite the fact that by now, it couldn't breathe anymore at all.

"I can heal your girl", it pressed out, "let me go… and I'll… heal her! I promise!"

"I can do that myself", Pat gave back, unimpressed; the sling of piano wire tightened even further, and two minutes later, the nightmare demon slumped forward as far as the sling allowed, the red glow in its eyes dulling, then vanishing fully as it finally lost the fight and died.

* * *

"There", Pat stated, letting go of the piano wire and watching with a small, but satisfied smile how the nightmare demon fell down and just laid there, the wire embedded deep in its throat, "so much about—" Buffy's hand met her cheek with a shockingly loud slapping noise, the slap hard – and unexpected – enough to throw her head aside, her good eye nearly doubling in size as she stared at the Slayer, sounding so incredulous that it was almost funny when she spoke up again after a moment of silence. "What the fuck did you do that for?!"

"That was for sneaking off after you said you wouldn't!" Buffy informed her, crossing her arms over her chest again and giving her a glare, "what if you'd gotten really hurt? You should be ashamed! And, since Willow isn't here to say it – language."

"Well, I didn't get hurt, and I killed that demon", Pat shrugged, glaring at the blonde since her cheek still stung where she had been slapped, "so all is fine, isn't it?"

"Yeah", Buffy grudgingly agreed, "but you could have gotten hurt. What if that demon hadn't been distracted by Angelus and me?"

"Then I would have killed it differently", the demon replied at once, "but I have to say, it was fun to do it that way, been a while since I've done that."

"I surely hope so", the Slayer smirked, raising an eyebrow, "and now that our nightmarish friend here is dead, so at least some good came of your little brainless moment."

"It was not brainless", Pat protested, "I knew perfectly well what I was doing!"

"If you say so", Buffy teased, smirking at the snort the taller woman let out, "but now, let's go home, the others are waiting there, I told them I'd meet them there after finding you."

"Alright", the demon agreed at once, giving the dead demon on the ground another nasty look before she focused on the Slayer again, sounding a bit regretful when she went on. "I'd prefer to go to the hospital, but it wouldn't be of any use, the doctor told me I should only come back tomorrow. Of course I could sneak in, but…"

"…but if they catch you, they might ban you, and that'd be much worse than just waiting until tomorrow", Buffy finished for her, making her nod with a dismayed look on her face; now that the nightmare demon had been killed, it clearly gave Pat time again to think of Willow and of what had happened to her, as the glum expression that slowly took over again showed the blonde.

"I know this is much easier said than done", she softly stated, moving closer to the taller woman and placing a comforting hand on her arm, "but you need to stop blaming yourself for what happened. It wasn't your fault, there was nothing you could have done…"

"That is easier said than done", Pat agreed at once, taking the time to find her cigarettes and to light one of them up before she continued, Buffy giving her a sympathetic look in reply, knowing perfectly well how she was feeling, about the guilt that was eating her up now that the task at hand had been finished and there was nothing left to distract her from it. "And I keep telling myself that there should have been something I could have done… Reacted faster, or thought of taking the ingredients for the healing spell along… Just… _something_, you know?"

"I know the feeling", Buffy let her know immediately, "been there myself a few times. But you know that Willow wouldn't want you to blame yourself… She'll want you at her bedside tomorrow morning, to cheer her up and to make her feel better, and not so you can be all gloom and doom the whole time."

"I'll give my best", Pat gave back after a moment of thinking about this, now smiling weakly, her smile fading though at what she said next, sounding oddly shy all of a sudden, an emotion the Slayer hardly ever had heard in her voice before. "Um… Well… I know this will sound weird, but would you mind if I slept at your place tonight? I kinda... don't want to be alone tonight."

"Of course you can", Buffy reassured her at once, "you know you're always welcome in our home… Dawn will be thrilled, she'll see it as the big slumber party after defeating yet another nasty demon."

"Well, it won't be really big, with just her, you and me", the demon smiled, a much more honest smile than the ones she had shown before, "but yeah, she'll probably like that… Thanks."

"There's nothing to thank me for", the blonde gave back, returning the smile, "and let's get going then, after that little scare with fake Angelus, I just wanna go home and rest."

"Sounds like a plan", the taller woman agreed, making the Slayer's smile widen; they both looked at the dead nightmare demon once more, then set off towards the Summers house without another word, both of them looking forward to getting the rest they deserved after dealing with yet another one of the nasties Sunnydale seemed to have in such abundance.


	13. Chapter 13

Two hours later, Pat had fallen asleep on the couch, snoring softly as she sat with her head on the backrest and her feet up on the living room table; with a slight look of dismay, Dawn was staring at her, as if she could wake her up by just doing that long enough, until Buffy nudged her in the ribs and gave her a strict look.

"Don't you dare to wake her up", she whispered, making sure to keep her voice low so she wouldn't do what she had just forbidden Dawn to even try, "after all that turmoil today, she deserves some peaceful rest."

"Yeah I know", her sister whispered back, without taking her eyes off the demon though, "she must have felt so bad after what happened with poor Willow… but still. I wanted to watch that movie with both of you."

"We can watch it tomorrow", the Slayer replied, rolling her eyes, "it's not going anywhere. Pat might though if you wake her up now, and she said herself she doesn't want to be alone, so just let her sleep a bit longer."

"Yeah, yeah", the teenager sighed, directing another dismayed glance at the subject of this whispered discussion, "but sooner or later, we'll have to wake her up, unless you want to let her sleep on the couch in that position all night."

"Of course not", Buffy replied, incredulous, "if she doesn't wake up on her own until we go to bed, we'll wake her up of course, what kind of host do you think I am?"

Deciding that it be wiser not to answer that, Dawn just smiled at her, then focused on the TV again, where the movie she'd been planning to watch with both her sister and the demon was still playing; only now, she realized that the whispering probably had been unnecessary, since the volume of the TV wasn't exactly low, and still the black haired woman slumbered peacefully, now even letting out a low grunt as she shifted on the couch a bit.

"I wish Willow was here", Buffy commented, covering her mouth with one hand to stifle a giggle, "this is just too cute."

"I wonder if she grunts and snores like that all the time", Dawn gave back, eying the sleeping demon curiously, giggling as well when next to her, her sister nodded, smirking when she let the teenager know that it had taken Willow a while to get used to that when they had moved in together.

"Poor Willow", she showed some sympathy, "but I bet she's missing that right now, lying in that nasty hospital bed and not having her by her side…"

"Probably", Buffy agreed, momentarily feeling sorry for both the demon and for her best friend – after all, they hardly ever had been forced to stay apart since they had moved in together, and she knew how hard it had been for both of them each time it had happened.

"Let's hope Willow can go home again soon", the brunette stated, making her sister agree once more; then, they both fell silent as they focused on the movie again, only to be distracted again a few minutes later when on the couch behind them, Pat let out a low groan, shifting slightly again, Buffy noticing with alarm that she was clenching her fists when she turned to look at the taller woman.

"What's up with her?" Dawn whispered, having done the same and finding herself unable to look away again, mesmerized by how fast the black haired woman's good eye was moving beneath the closed lid, making it quite obvious to Buffy what exactly was going on.

"She's having a nightmare", she pointed out to her sister, "not surprising, after what happened today… I'm quite sure I'll have one, too, once I go to sleep."

"Should we wake her up?" Dawn wanted to know, still unable to take her gaze away from the demon; before Buffy could answer that question though, Pat herself made it moot by suddenly sitting up on the couch, so fast that she nearly threw over the table when her feet involuntarily kicked it, her good eye wide as she stared at the Slayer and the brunette sitting on the floor in front of her and looking back at her.

"The hospital", she said before any of the two had the chance to speak up, "I need to go there, now, something's wrong…"

"You just had a nightmare", Buffy tried to calm her down, not sure what to think of this sudden outburst and wondering what exactly the demon had been dreaming about, "not surprising after what happened, I mean…"

"No", Pat interrupted her, "it wasn't… that was no regular nightmare Buffy, something's wrong there and I need to go there, it's Willow… Something's happening to her, I couldn't see it properly, but…"

She raised both hands to run them through her hair, and anything Buffy had come up with to convince her that it merely had been a bad dream was wiped out of the blonde's mind at once, the demon freezing in mid-movement as well, staring at her hands as if seeing them for the first time, and with good reason, as the Slayer had to admit. When they had finally come home after the time at the hospital and killing the nightmare demon, the first thing Pat had done had been washing her hands, since they still had been covered in blood from when she had tried to stop the bleeding of Willow's injury; now though, the skin that had been clean when she had fallen asleep was covered in crimson again, making her look as if she just had gone out and killed someone.

"What the…", Buffy finally broke the silence, looking from her friend's bloodied hand to her face, their eyes meeting; for a few moments, there was silence again, then Pat spoke up and broke it, saying exactly what the Slayer had been fearing the moment she had seen the blood on the taller woman's hands. "There's another one. This isn't over."

* * *

The night had been surprisingly quiet – especially for a hospital in Sunnydale, as all the doctors and nurses there knew – and the nurse manning the front desk just had decided that she could tempt fate by taking a short break in the form of a cup of coffee and her favorite weekly gossip magazine – when the double door which served as main entrance not just was pushed open, but practically flew open, and two women hurried into the lobby, making the poor woman jump and nearly spill her coffee.

"Excuse me!" she called out after a moment of shocked silence, during which she had noticed the alarmed look on the faces of the two and the blood on the hands of the taller one, "can I help you? Do you need help?"

"No", the taller one snapped, quite rudely, in the nurse's opinion; the smaller, blonde one looked at her for a bit longer, than grabbed her companion by the arm and whispered something to her, making her nod after a moment.

"Sorry for barging in here like that", the small blonde then said to the nurse, smiling pleasantly at her, "but it's kind of an emergency, and not the kind anyone of you is equipped to deal with. My friend here and I would be forever grateful if you'd just forget you saw us and let us go on our way, alright?"

Under normal circumstances, she never would have allowed that, she was a very assiduous nurse and took her job very seriously; she also knew though that in this town, circumstances were hardly ever normal, and now that she'd gotten a good look at the blonde woman, and recognized her as the one who had heroically butted in when strangely deformed men had tried to bite her neck several months ago, all those concerns and thoughts were blown out the window.

"I know what kind of town this is", she let the pair know, briefly looking at the taller of the two when she raised an eyebrow, "and I know you, you saved me a while ago, you probably don't remember, but I do… So… Yeah, do whatever you have to do, turn the deformed men to dust again like you did back then or whatever it is, I never saw you."

"Okay", Buffy gave back, a bit startled about how fast this had worked out – already while she had been talking, she'd been sure that the nurse wouldn't just let them go on, and it made her feel a bit ashamed to admit that the other woman had been right when she had said that she probably wouldn't remember rescuing her, but before she could ponder this further, Pat already started hurrying on, prompting her to follow after giving the nurse another short, but thankful smile, the young woman returning it heartily.

"Wait", Buffy then called out, hurrying to catch up with the demon, "do you even know where you're going?!"

"Of course", Pat snapped back, irritated, "I remember in which room they put her, what do you think I am, dense?"

"Will you calm down", the Slayer almost ordered as an answer, "if you're right and there really is something in that room with Willow right now, you won't help her much if you just blindly storm in and get yourself killed right there."

For a moment, the taller woman looked as if she wanted to protest, then deflated visibly and let out a sigh, nodding her agreement to her friend's words, then taking in a few deep breaths before she moved on, still at a fast pace, but not with the headless hurry she had shown before. Still Buffy had troubles to keep up with her, barely managing to stay by her side as they moved through the corridors together; just when she wanted to ask if they had to go much further, the demon suddenly stopped in front of one of the doors lining the hallway left and right, her brow furrowing as she listened for any suspicious noises coming through the thin wood.

"I can't hear anything", she then muttered, "but be ready to fight anyway, just in case…"

Nodding, Buffy clutched the handle of the sword she had brought along concealed beneath her coat, ready to pull it out the second she'd spot anything hostile; without even noticing that she was holding her breath, she watched how Pat grasped the door handle and pushed it down, then let the door swing open slowly, already clenching her fists, the smoke that started to curl towards the ceiling from them showing that she was prepared to let them flame up any moment now.

A few seconds later, the smoke vanished into nothingness though as the demon just stood there and stared; worried about what might cause such a reaction, Buffy moved to look past her, her eyes going wide as well when she saw her best friend lying in the bed, her face contorted in what only could be pain, sweat glistening on her brow as she moaned softly every now and then.

"What's wrong with her?" she demanded to know, pushing past the taller woman and into the room, "she looks like she's sick…"

"I don't know", Pat gave back, moving up to the bed and nervously running one hand through her hair, looking down on her partner and hating how helpless it made her feel to see her like this, "seems she's running a fever or something… Shouldn't they be doing something against that here? This is a hospital, dammit!"

"Wait", the blonde mumbled, more to herself than to the taller woman, "I think I've seen her like this before…"

"When?" the demon demanded to know, impatient, her gaze flickering back and forth between her partner and the Slayer, her good eye briefly widening when Buffy replied a few moments later, without taking her gaze away from the redhead. "When she was going through withdrawal… After that time she quit with the magic."

"But why would she go on withdrawal?" the taller woman helplessly gave back, moving another step closer to the bed, "she didn't quit with the spells or anything…"

"The demon, of course", Buffy answered at once, "she's never told you about those times? It was horrible for her, painful and draining, of course it'd be one of her nightmares… and of course that demon would use it, not only does it give her pain, it makes her practically powerless."

"What can we do to help her?" Pat wanted to know after pondering this unpleasant fact for a few moments, frowning when Buffy just shrugged helplessly, her gaze moving to the witch once more as she replied. "I have no idea… back then, all she could do was try and sit it out…"

"But back then, she didn't have a massive knife wound in her gut", the black haired woman pointed out, running both hands through her hair now, "who knows how that will affect this withdrawal or whatever it is… We need to find that demon and make it reverse what it did to her…"

"I doubt it will be that easy now", Buffy sighed, her voice and face full of dismay as she finally focused on the demon again, "when she was on her magical rampage after Tara had been shot, we suggested cutting off her power to Giles… And he said that can't be done, it'd kill her. Obviously, it didn't do so now, but who knows what might happen once it all rushes back…"

"There's got to be something we can do", Pat replied, the frantic sound of her voice making Buffy uneasy, "we can't just let her…" She trailed off as an idea dawned in her mind, and for a moment, she found it hard to believe that she hadn't thought of this earlier, nearly slapping herself when she realized that her solution at least might take part of the danger her partner was in away.

"The spell", she voiced at least part of her idea, only resulting in a blank look from the Slayer, forcing her to hold back a sigh before she elaborated. "The spell so she can borrow my healing… Go to our place, she keeps a bag with the ingredients I'll need in her little wooden magic box, get that and come back here, it's a little leather pouch…"

"What will we tell the doctors then?" Buffy wanted to know, not sounding all too convinced by this idea; still she accepted the keys to the apartment when the demon handed them to her, the taller woman shrugging afterwards, not sounding all too worried when she replied. "That it's a miracle? This is Sunnydale, they'll be used to weird stuff. If they even notice, I mean, so far no one has noticed that she's running that fever."

"Good point", the Slayer admitted, then promised her friend that she'd be quick, making her nod; she still took the time to tell Buffy that she should be careful, then her attention fully focused on Willow, so she didn't even notice anymore how the blonde left while she pulled one of the visitor chairs over to the bed and sat down, carefully grasping her partner's hand.

"You'll be alright again soon", she said after a moment of silence, not even sure if Willow could actually hear her; if she did, there was no reaction, her eyes remaining closed, the only noise coming from her being the soft moans she let out every now and then while sweat trickled down her brow.

"I promise", Pat went on anyway, tenderly squeezing her hand just in case she'd feel it, "once Buffy gets back, we'll do that spell, then we'll find that demon and kill it, and you'll be fine…"

She trailed off and fell silent, not sure what else to say; and so, she just sat there, holding Willow's hand and looking at her, waiting for Buffy to come back, not allowing herself to think of what might happen if her partner's state got worse before the blonde's return.


	14. Chapter 14

To the demon's endless dismay, it almost took an hour until Buffy finally did come back; during that time, Willow's state hadn't improved a bit, but at least also hadn't gotten any worse, making the black haired woman wonder if she'd gone through exactly the same when she had been on withdrawal the first time – or if the demon responsible for this was worsening it, to make sure it'd get as much sustenance from her pain as possible.

"There you are at last", she greeted the Slayer, forcing those thoughts aside for now, "did you find it?"

"Yeah, here it is", Buffy gave back, handing the pouch to the taller woman; quickly, she opened it and peered inside, then nodded, quite sure that all the stuff needed for the spell was in there. It would have been much better if she'd just been able to ask Willow, but since that was out of the question, she figured she'd have to take the risk; hoping that she wouldn't make anything worse, she carefully poured some of the fine powder into her palm, then grasped the witch's hand again before she took in a deep breath and started reciting the spell, Buffy automatically moving back, well aware of the demon's tendency to accidentally flame up during that certain magic.

Hoping that no one would enter just now, she watched how Pat finished the spell, to her happiness not messing up any of the words despite how nervous she had to be; she had a moment to wonder if Willow had practiced with her after the last time that spell had been used to save her, then the taller woman blew heartily on the pile of powder in her hand, and seconds later, her free hand flamed up, the by now well-known fleshy noises of quick healing filling the silence another moment later.

"There we go", Pat muttered, her free hand clenching into a fist as she felt the magic's effect, "am I glad I did that right…"

Nodding, Buffy moved up to the bed again, making sure to stay away from the flames that still flickered on the demon's hand; looking down on Willow, she wondered if the spell would do more than just heal the wound in her stomach, a progress she couldn't see since it was covered up by a thick bandage, but the noises were more than enough to tell her that it was healing as quickly as it was supposed to with the aid of the magic.

Finally, after almost a full minute, Pat let go of her partner's hand and took a step back, the Slayer noticing with alarm that the hand she ran through her hair was trembling slightly and that her face had gone pale, prompting her to ask the taller woman if she was alright, making her nod after a few moments.

"Yeah, I think so", she then said, moving to the chair again though and sitting down on it quite heavily, "I tried to keep the spell longer than usual, to see if it'll help with the withdrawal, but it only drained me, didn't seem to do much good…"

"It was worth a try though", Buffy reassured her, making her nod; then, she took in a few deep breaths before she got up again and carefully started to remove the bandage wrapped around her girlfriend's stomach, relief filling her when she saw that the knife wound was indeed gone.

"At least that worked", she let Buffy know, glancing over her shoulder and at the blonde, "but the withdrawal symptoms are still as they were before I did the spell…"

"I'll call Giles", the Slayer decided in reply, "let's get her out of here and to my place, it's closer than yours, and we don't want a doctor to walk in and try to check on her, no matter how high the weirdness factor of this town is…"

"Yeah", Pat agreed, "just give me another moment, that spell really drained a lot…" She let out another shaky breath, Buffy watching her with concern; finally though, she seemed to get a grip on herself again, since she got up from the chair, then carefully picked Willow up, making sure that she had a proper grip on her before she nodded at the Slayer, prompting her to open the door and peer down the hallway, making sure no one was around to see them leave.

"Hallway's clear", she let the taller woman know, "let's go quickly, before someone catches us after all."

Again, Pat nodded her agreement, letting Buffy take the lead; the blonde did so, looking left and right again before she hurried down the hallway to the emergency exit, hearing the demon right behind her, feeling relieved again when they made it to the heavy steel door without anyone spotting them.

"Let's hope this isn't connected to an alarm", she muttered, a vaguely agreeing sound coming from Pat in reply; she glanced down the hallway again, then held her breath as she pushed the door open, glad when nothing happened, especially no screeching alarm being raised and alerting anyone to their little escape.

"For once, we're lucky", she muttered, more to herself than to the taller woman behind her, hurrying down the short stairway; moments later, she was in front of yet another heavy door, and when she pushed it open, she found herself in the hospital parking lot, relieved to see that it was empty.

"About time", Pat grumbled behind her, still clutching Willow in a tight grip so she wouldn't accidentally drop her; nodding her agreement, Buffy started walking again, eager to get to her home as fast as possible, with the black haired woman right behind her, the only noise apart from their hurried footsteps being the small moans and groans the witch kept letting out, stirring weakly in her partner's grip every now and then without waking up though, making them both ask themselves how bad her state really was – and if there would be any way to help her, or if they'd be forced to just wait and see how things would develop.

* * *

An hour later, Giles was sitting on the comfortable double bed in what once had been Joyce's bedroom, before she unexpectedly had passed away; as always when he was in distress or nervous, he had taken off his glasses and was cleaning them, his eyes never leaving the still unconscious form of the witch though, not even when he spoke up, addressing Buffy and Pat, the two women standing a few feet behind him and watching him.

"I've never seen something like that before", the Watcher finally broke the uncomfortable silence which so far only had been interrupted by the soft moans Willow still was letting out in irregular intervals, without having woken up once since she'd been taken here, "and as much as it pains me to say this, I'm not really sure how to help her…"

"But there has to be something we can do", Pat repeated the statement she had made earlier, giving the Brit a helpless look, "can't you ask the coven or something? There must be some spell or some potion to help her, we can't just let her suffer like this…"

"I know", Giles agreed at once, looking from the witch and at her, "and of course I'll contact the coven, but I'm not sure if even they'll be able to help. You need to understand that, even though it is possible to sever the connection between a person and their magic, it usually is a lengthy process, usually aided by rituals and various spells, as far as I know, it never has been done like this before, so abruptly and brutally. To be fully honest with you, I'm a bit surprised this didn't kill her."

"I'm glad it didn't", Buffy sighed, "but poor her, she seems to be in so much pain… Isn't there anything we can do? Just to make this a bit easier for her?"

"Sage might help", Giles let her know after thinking about this for a few moments, prompting Buffy to remember that Amy had tried to sneak exactly that out of the house in the middle of the night, back then when she had been friends with Willow and had led the redhead to Rack and his dangerous dealings of magical power, "burning it close to her so she'll breathe in the smoke, it might help soothing the withdrawal."

"I know she has some of that stuff at our apartment", Pat replied to that at once, "I'll go and get it, if it'll help her just a tiny bit, it'll still be better than just leaving her likes this until it passes on its own or something…"

"Be careful, but try to be quick", Buffy advised her, making her nod; she told them that she'd hurry, then asked them to keep an eye on Willow until she'd be back, the Slayer and her Watcher reassuring her that they would; she still took the time to give them a thankful, but brief smile, then turned and hurried outside, barely stopping to grab her jacket and put it on as she left the house.

Just as Buffy had told her, she gave her best to be careful as she hurried towards the apartment with steps so fast that she was nearly running; since all her worst nightmares involved Willow in one way or another though – except the one about losing her other eye –, she wasn't all too worried about getting attacked, figuring that the demon only had done this to her partner to keep them busy until it had fed enough so it could go back to sleep for another thirty years.

Still, she glanced around every now and then as she walked to the apartment as fast as she could without really breaking into a run; once there, she quickly made her way up to the second floor, unlocking the door and, without even taking off her shoes or jacket, moving to the cupboard where Willow kept her supplies for magic, relieved when she spotted the half-full bag of sage right after opening the door of said cupboard.

Holding back a sigh of relief, Pat grabbed the plastic bag and stuffed it into the inside pocket of her jacket, where it wasn't in any danger of falling out; she took another moment to look at the rest of the ingredients, wondering if any might have a chance of helping as well, then decided that it'd be better not to experiment and left the apartment again in a hurry, getting out her cell phone to send a text to the Slayer while she made her way down the stairs, not bothering to wait for the elevator.

_Got the sage, on my way back now, _she informed the blonde, then tucked her phone back into the pocket, figuring that it didn't really matter if Buffy would write anything back or not; again, she walked so fast that she nearly ran, her thoughts now fully focused on Willow again as she hoped that the sage would help to ease her withdrawal symptoms, not wanting to imagine what the redhead had to be going through right now. She still remembered how she had felt when her demonic side had been taken away from her and she'd been reduced to a mere human, how empty it had made her feel; and since she was well aware of how much the magic meant to Willow, she figured that the witch would feel the same once she'd wake up and realize that it was gone.

Frowning to herself at those dark thoughts, Pat kept hurrying on, glad when the Summers house appeared in the distance; some of that gladness vanished though when already from afar, she could hear the sounds of fighting coming from said house, and now, she did speed up to a run, suddenly fearing the worst. Momentarily, she almost called out Buffy's name as she entered the house, then bit down on her tongue, stopping herself in the last moment – if anyone was up there and attacking the little group, it'd be foolish to alert them to her presence by shouting, and she'd lose the element of surprise, an advantage she might need badly, depending on how dire the situation would be up in the bedroom.


	15. Chapter 15

Clenching her fists, ready to let them flame up, the demon hurried up the stairs, giving her best to be as quiet as possible despite her urge to get to the bedroom quickly; the closer she got to her goal, the louder the fighting sounds became, and when she finally reached the open door, she found herself looking at what was quite the unfair battle, with four vampires facing the Slayer while a fifth figure stood next to the bed, hands outstretched and fingers spread over the redhead's still body. She had a moment to realize that the figure next to the bed looked like a much taller version of the nightmare demon she killed a few hours ago, then her instincts took over as she moved into the room, to one of the vampires battling Buffy; from the corner of her eye, she spotted Giles lying on the floor out cold, but knew that there was no time to check on him, not now with the blonde up against four on her own.

Without a word, not even a growl, since she didn't want to alert them to her presence, Pat stepped up to the vampire closest to her, grabbed his head and, gritting her teeth as her muscles bulged, simply ripped it off, once more glad about her demonic strength as she watched the vampire crumble into a pile of dust, the head in her hands doing the same with a few seconds of delay.

"Thank God you're here", Buffy panted, already bleeding from a split lip and a cut in her cheek; the demon just gave her a brief smirk, then the next vampire came at her, and she reacted by grabbing him as he rushed at her and, using his own momentum, throwing him out into the hallway, the vampire performing a brief flight before he hit the wall and slumped to the floor, dazed. His impact against the wall was hard enough to make one of the pictures hung there fall down, the wooden frame cracking and breaking as it landed on the ground; without thinking twice about it, Pat came after the vampire, snatching up one of the pieces of frame and ramming the sharp, splintery end into his chest, a malicious smirk forming no her face when he was dusted as well.

Calling out Buffy's name, she turned and threw her the makeshift stake so she could deal with the two vamps still left; catching it without troubles, the Slayer did just that, dusting one of them while Pat hurried back into the bedroom, punching the one remaining vampire on her way past him while she approached the large demon still standing next to the bed and staring down on the witch, with brightly glowing eyes and a smirk on its face.

"Hey!" the black haired woman snapped, eager to distract the demon from whatever it was doing to Willow, "get away from her, fuckface!"

At the insult, it reacted, something Pat surely would have found amusing, had the circumstances been different; it turned its head to look at her, the glowing eyes narrowing, and when it spoke up moments later, the black haired woman nearly froze in mid-step, not having expected a perfectly human sounding female voice to come out of that mouth.

"You", the demon snarled, baring pointed and sharp teeth at her, "you're the one who killed my child!"

This stunned Pat even more than hearing that voice, and she did stop, staring at the demon, who held her gaze defiantly, now even a hint of sadness in her voice as she went on. "I loved him, I loved him dearly, and it was his first time of feeding on his own, and you killed him! Now I'll do to you what you did to me!" With those words, the demon focused on Willow again; and only a few seconds later, Pat tackled her, with enough force to make her stumble a few steps away despite the startling difference in height and weight, slamming her against the wall, the black haired woman's good eye now glowing brightly red as well and smoke curling from her hands towards the ceiling as she stared up at the other demon.

"You'll undo what you did to her now", she snarled, while behind her, Buffy turned to see what was going on, having killed the last remaining vampire, "or I'll send you down to Hell so you can be with your beloved son again."

In response, the demon just snarled at her – before the huge head suddenly came down surprisingly fast and she landed a rather painful headbutt, hard enough to make Pat let go of her, the black haired woman involuntarily forced a few steps back while she let out a low sound of pain. Snarling, the nightmare demon rushed at her, not giving her a chance to recover from the first hit, but grabbing her at the throat and lifting her off her feet, smiling maliciously again when she began to choke, unable to hold back the gasping noises while she helplessly beat down on the taller demon's hand, obviously not doing much damage though.

"I'm having enough of this", Buffy declared to no one in particular, since Giles was still out cold and Pat probably wasn't listening to her; clenching her fists, she started forward, then changed her mind in the last second and settled on kicking the nightmare demon instead, landing a powerful blow against the tall creature's kneecap and making her shriek with obvious pain. Still she didn't let go of Pat, the black haired woman's frantic hits against the other demon's arm to Buffy's worry growing weaker while her face by now had reddened visibly; she landed another punch, followed by yet another kick, wishing that she'd have time to get a weapon while she kept raining blows on the nightmare demon, knowing that she had to make her let go of her friend soon if she didn't want her to end up strangled to death.

Finally, she achieved just that, as her blows made an impact on the nightmare demon at last; she let out a pained howl, then dropped Pat and, as if for good measure, kicked her hard enough to send her sliding across the room until the wall stopped with her a low thumping sound, the creature's eyes full of anger and hate as they focused on Buffy, her voice showing the same emotion when she told the Slayer that this wasn't over.

"I'll feast on your hearts before I go back to sleep", she added, blocking another blow the Slayer had been trying to land, then punching her hard enough to throw her backwards, making her collide with Pat just as the black haired woman had been trying to get to her feet, promptly ending up on the ground again when Buffy crashed into her; the nightmare demon took a moment to smirk at the sight, then turned and jumped through the closed window, leaving nothing but glass shards behind as she vanished into the night.

* * *

"Are you okay?" Buffy demanded to know as she helped Pat to her feet, the taller woman still clutching her throat and coughing; despite that, she nodded after a moment, her voice even hoarser than usual when she replied. "Yeah, fine, nothing broken or anything… What did that bitch do to Willow now?"

"I have no idea", the Slayer sighed, slowly letting go of her friend, ready to catch her the moment it'd look as if she might go back down, "I couldn't see anything, she'd brought those vampires along to distract Giles and me…"

"Bitch", Pat repeated, as if for emphasis – only to jump a second later when Willow's voice came from the bed, weak and trembling, but still loud enough to be audible. "Language, Sweetie…"

Within the blink of an eye, all pain and discomfort was forgotten as Pat rushed over to the bed, nearly throwing Buffy over when she bumped into her on the way there and not caring, lowering herself into a crouch next to the bed, her gaze never leaving the redhead's face.

"How are you feeling?" she demanded to know, not even noticing how behind her, Buffy moved to check on Giles, figuring that the demon was taking good enough care of Willow, even though the blonde froze in mid-movement when the witch replied and she heard the tremble and fear in her voice.

"My magic is gone", the redhead replied, the sound of her voice prompting Pat to grasp her hand and hold it tenderly, "I can feel it, it's all gone…"

"I know", the demon gave back, moving her free hand to caress the smaller woman's hair tenderly, "that nightmare demon did that… but we'll figure out how to return it to you, I promise."

For a moment, Willow looked as if she wanted to protest, or ask how they wanted to figure that out exactly; then, she just nodded, forcing a smile on her face, hoping that her partner wouldn't notice how fake it was before she spoke up again, glancing down on her stomach, her smile a bit more honest when her gaze moved back to the demon. "You healed me, right? Thanks…"

"Nothing to thank me for", Pat replied at once, returning the smile, "it was the least I can do, after what that demon did to you… Do you remember any of that? How it happened?"

"No", the redhead sighed, "I must have been asleep when it came to the hospital, I just remember going to sleep after they pumped me full of painkillers and then, I woke up again here and my magic was gone…"

"Giles will contact the coven, well, once he woke up again", the demon let her know, squeezing her hand tenderly, "maybe they'll know what to do… and if not, we'll find this demon and I'll torture her until she'll give it back to you."

"She?" Willow repeated, momentarily distracted from the fact that her magic was gone, "the demon's female this time?"

"Yes", Pat gave back, "the mommy of the nightmare demon we already killed. She's pretty pissed."

"Just what we need", Willow muttered, shifting slightly on the bed, "a mommy demon out for revenge…"

"Indeed", the demon sighed, deciding not to mention what said mommy demon had said to her before the fighting had begun; instead, she squeezed Willow's hand once more, then Giles let out a groan behind her and made them both look at him, just in time to see him wake up, another groan coming from him while he held his head with one hand.

"What did I miss?" he then wanted to know, looking at Buffy, the Slayer on one knee beside him; she quickly told him, to Pat's relief leaving out the nightmare demon's threat as well, not wanting to upset Willow even further, even though she did mention the fact that the demon they had killed earlier had been the son of their current opponent and that she was out for revenge.

"This is bad", the Watcher gave back after she had finished telling him, coming to his feet with a bit of help from the blonde, "demons out for revenge are even more dangerous than usual…"

"We'll kill her anyway", Pat replied, her confidence making the redhead smile slightly again, "but before we do, we'll force her to undo whatever she did to Willow."

"And how do you want to force her to do that?" Giles wanted to know, raising an eyebrow, only to get slightly flustered at the reply he received from the taller woman, her cold voice and dry tone showing that she meant every word she was saying.

"Torture usually works quite fine for that", she let him know, the glint in her good eye all at once making him glad that she was on their side and not against them; he just nodded meekly, knowing that trying to discuss this idea with her would only lead to more unpleasantness, clearing his throat before he let them all know that he'd go home and call the coven now, leaving the room a few moments later.

"I think you freaked him out a bit now", Willow commented, not surprised when her partner shrugged at once – by now, she had her demonic side under control quite well most of the time, but whenever something unpleasant happened to the witch, that control usually ended very quickly, and the demon didn't bother with holding it back then, either.

"He'll have to live with it", Pat now confirmed that impression, "I'm just glad he didn't try to talk me out of it."

"He would have if you'd been talking about doing that to a human", Buffy commented, making them both look at her, "but since it's a demon, well…" She shrugged, then smiled, a hearty yawn coming from her moments later though, making them all realize what a tiring day it had been for the group and how tired they were themselves.

"We should get some rest", the Slayer suggested after she had managed to stop yawning, "tomorrow might get quite tiring again if we have to find and kill this demon."

"Agreed", Pat muttered, all at once feeling awfully tired as well, the excitement and drama of the day taking its toll on her; Willow nodded as well, prompting Buffy to let them know that they could sleep here if they wanted to, not surprised when both of them nodded – the thought of going back to the apartment now, with the witch still weakened, didn't seem too appealing to either of them.

"You have coffee here, right?" Pat wanted to know moments later, making Buffy roll her eyes before she nodded; the demon smirked, then let out a yawn as well, the Slayer taking this as her cue to leave, wishing the couple a good night before she retreated to her own bedroom, closing the door behind herself and giving them some privacy.

"Let's hope we'll find a solution for this quickly", Willow stated as soon as Buffy was gone, watching how her partner moved to the window and opened it, eager to have one more smoke before they'd go to sleep, "I feel so… empty without my magic."

"I know how you feel", Pat let her know after lighting up her cigarette, giving her a sympathetic look, "I've been there, remember? It sucks, but I promise we'll figure something out…"

"I hope so", the redhead sighed, making herself comfortable in the bed again, "going on without magic, I'm not sure if I'd be able to handle that…"

"You won't have to, not for too long", Pat promised in reply, giving her partner a reassuring smile, even though she felt a bit dismayed when it wasn't returned, "once we found this bitch, I'll burn her until she begs for permission to give your magic back to you."

Even though she wasn't so sure it would be that easy, Willow made herself smile and nod, then changed the topic by asking her partner if she'd be done with that cigarette soon so she could come to bed and cuddle; in response, Pat smiled and nodded, taking another, quite long drag of said cigarette before she threw it out the window and closed it, quickly undressing afterwards and joining her girlfriend in bed, making herself comfortable after pulling her into a tender embrace.

"Don't worry", she muttered after the redhead had settled into the comforting hug, "we'll figure this out, we always do, and then you'll get your magic back and everything will be as it was."

"I hope so", the witch repeated, giving her best to hide how insecure she felt about the whole situation; telling herself that for now, there wasn't anything she could do anyway and that Buffy had been right when she had suggested that they should get some rest, she craned her neck to kiss her partner tenderly, wishing her a good night afterwards, the demon returning that before they both drifted off into dreamland, slumbering deeply just a few minutes later.


	16. Chapter 16

Author's Note: Since I was asked so nicely via review, here's a second chapter to make up for not posting on Monday :) Enjoy! :D

* * *

When Willow woke up a few hours later, she wasn't sure what exactly had torn her out of her uneasy dreams; next to her, Pat was still fast asleep, snoring softly into the pillow, a clear sign that it hadn't been some sort of attack which had woken her, but something else, a feeling she couldn't quite put her finger on yet.

"No worries", a female voice came from her side of the bed moments later, tearing her out of her musings and making her jump, "I'm not here to hurt you, witch…"

Startled, Willow sat up straight, even letting out a small squeal; smiling, the nightmare demon moved another step closer to the bed, her smile widening when the redhead grabbed her partner and tried to wake her up by shaking her, with no success though.

"Your fiery lover won't disturb our little talk", the nightmare demon let her know, "I made sure of that. But as I said, I'm not here to hurt you, so don't be afraid, child. I'm here with an offer."

"An offer", Willow repeated, not sure what to think of that – and not liking the fact that this demon was capable of making Pat sleep through all this, "what kind of offer?"

"You let me finish feeding and keep your girl here away from me, and I'll return your magic", the nightmare demon gave back, smiling again, probably in an attempt to look friendly, even though it was ruined by the fact that she had sharp and pointy teeth which glinted dangerously in the weak light that fell into the room through the half-opened curtains, the effort to look friendly ruined even further by what she said next. "If you insist on going after me, I'll kill you girlfriend, your friends, everyone who's dear to you, and you'll be left alone without a spark of magic left. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?"

"Get out", Willow flatly replied, not willing to consider this for even a moment, well aware of the pain and suffering this demon would cause in the future if they didn't stop her now, even if she wouldn't have any more offspring, "I'd rather go on without magic than letting you live for God knows how long and torment people whenever you feel hungry."

"So self-righteous", the nightmare demon sighed, shaking her head, "and that even though I just told you what will happen to all your loved ones if you don't back off?"

"My loved ones know how to take care of themselves, even if I can't help them with magic", the redhead gave back, "and once I tell Pat about your little nightly visit here, you better stay out of her way, she won't like that at all."

"She'll be the first one to go", the nightmare demon gave back, sounding so confident that for a moment, Willow asked herself if she really had made the right choice now, "the things my son was capable of doing are nothing compared to my powers. She'll die in your arms, tomorrow, and maybe you'll reconsider then."

With those words, the nightmare demon did a mocking little bow – before she just vanished into nothingness, making the redhead jump slightly, a movement she repeated involuntarily when next to her, Pat let out a grunt and sat up as well, blinking sleepily as she looked at her girlfriend.

"What's going on", she then wanted to know, frowning when she saw the fearful look on Willow's face, "did something happen…?"

"The demon was here", the witch replied, her voice trembling as she thought of the last words said demon had directed at her before she had vanished, "to make me an offer…"

"What?" Pat gave back, going from sleepy to wide awake within the blink of an eye, "what offer? Did she do anything to you? Why didn't you wake me up?"

"I tried", Willow defended herself, "you just slept on, and she said she did something so you wouldn't wake up… She said that she'll return my magic if I promise that we'll back off and just let her finish feeding, but if we keep going after her, she'll kill all those dear to me and I won't get it back…"

"Now I wanna kill her even more", Pat grumbled in reply, "who does she think she is, coming here and threatening you and offering you idiotic deals…"

"She said she'd start with you", the redhead blurted out in reply, her fear growing as she couldn't help herself, but just had to imagine various awful scenarios which would make the nightmare demon's words come true, "that you'd die in my arms tomorrow, and that I might reconsider then…"

"No one of us will die", Pat reassured her at once, sensing how much this was disturbing the witch, moving closer to her and putting both arms around her, "I promise. The only one who'll do some dying will be that bitch."

"Maybe we're taking her not seriously enough", Willow gave back, looking at her partner nervously, "she told me that what her son was capable of is nothing compared to her powers, and her son did that little replacement trick so you'd stab me instead of that thug… And that was powerful magic already…"

"She's bluffing, I'm sure", the demon replied, shrugging at the disbelieving look her girlfriend gave her in reply before she elaborated on that statement. "If she's oh so powerful, why are we all still alive? She could have killed us all when she was here earlier today. She's just trying to scare us into leaving her alone."

"And what if you're wrong?" Willow demanded to know, clearly not as convinced of this as her partner, "remember what her son told us, he wasn't interested in pain and suffering, just in the fear the nightmares caused… Maybe she's like that, too, maybe she doesn't want to kill, but will if she has to…"

"All demons want to kill, Sweetie", Pat pointed out to her in reply, "that's part of being a demon. I tell you, she's just bluffing to make us back off."

"Let's hope you're right", Willow sighed after a moment, making her partner nod at once, still quite confident; she gave the smaller woman a calming smile, then pulled her closer for a tender kiss, giving her best to sound soothing and reassuring when she spoke up again. "Don't let her scare you… That's just what she wants. We'll find a way to give you magic back to you, and then we'll finish her off, and no one of us will die."

"If scaring me is what she wanted, she accomplished that", Willow the witch admitted in reply, "she sounded so confident and sure of herself… and I love you, I don't want to lose you…"

"You won't", the demon gave back, "I promise. I love you too, so much in fact that I want to spend many more years with you, so I won't let some random nightmare demon with delusions of grandeur kill me."

"Good to know", the witch replied, finally smiling weakly; returning the smile, Pat reassured her once more that it'd be okay and that no one would die before she kissed her briefly, suggesting that they should get some more sleep afterwards, making her partner nod her agreement, the couple sharing yet another kiss before they finally laid down again, the redhead snuggling up to the taller woman the moment her head had touched the pillow.

It didn't take long until Pat was fast asleep again, her calm breaths turning into soft snores just a few minutes after she'd laid back down; unlike her though, Willow didn't fall asleep at once again though, lying next to her instead and watching her sleep, her heart filled with fear once more as she asked herself if her partner was right and the nightmare demon just had been bluffing – or if Pat was underestimating their new foe and much more terrible things would happen to all of them in the next day.

* * *

In the next morning, the smell of coffee and toast was already drifting through the house when Willow woke up, as so often doing so before her partner, Pat still slumbering soundly next to her; she took a moment to look at the sleeping demon, once more remembering the nightmare demon's visit in the middle of the night and the threats she had made, then forced those thoughts aside while she carefully got up, not wanting to wake her partner, and, upon realizing that she still was wearing the hospital gown she had been put into after the operation which had saved her, grimacing to herself, hoping that Buffy would have some clothes that would fit her as she left the bedroom and made her way downstairs, finding the blonde in the kitchen there.

"Good morning", Buffy greeted her, smirking at the sight of her best friend in a white hospital gown and with tousled hair, "nice gown you're wearing, you planning to run around like that all day?"

"No", Willow grimaced at once, sitting down at the table and giving the Slayer a thankful look when she put a cup of coffee down in front of her seconds later, "actually, I wanted to ask if you have some clothes I can borrow."

"Sure", Buffy shrugged, "but for pants, you should ask Dawn, I doubt any of mine will fit you, you are taller than me after all. Why am I so short if I'm the Slayer, I should be the tallest of all of us."

"So people will underestimate you?" Willow guessed, asking herself where that had come from now; Buffy gave her a look that showed she wasn't really convinced, all thoughts about her height forgotten though at what her best friend said next. "Talking about underestimating someone, I'm quite afraid that this is what Pat is doing with our foe, she came to me last night…"

"What?" the blonde nearly squeaked, staring at her friend in shock, "what do you mean, she came to you?"

"I woke up and she was there", Willow explained in reply, not sure what had been so hard to understand about that, "and she offered me a deal, if we back off and just let her feed, she'll give back my magic… and if we don't, she'll kill everyone who's dear to me."

"Charming", Buffy commented, "and why didn't you wake me up? Or Pat, so she could have kicked her ass?"

"I tried to, but I couldn't", the redhead defended herself, "she did something so Pat would sleep through the whole thing. And once she was gone, I saw no point in waking you up… Pat thinks she's just bluffing and tries to scare us into backing off, she said that, if she's so powerful, why didn't she just kill us all earlier that day, when you were fighting and I was out cold."

"Well, that's a good point", Buffy agreed after a moment, sitting down opposite of the redhead and giving her a concerned look, since her distress was quite visible on her face, "but you're not so sure about that, are you?"

"No", Willow sighed, idly playing with the handle of her coffee cup, "I mean, of course I hope Pat is right, but what if she isn't? That demon told me Pat will die in my arms today, maybe I'll reconsider her offer then…"

"So she could keep Pat from waking up, but didn't kill her right away?" Buffy pondered out loud, "that doesn't make sense, why make you wait? I think your girl's right and she's just bluffing."

"My words exactly", Pat's voice came from the doorway, startling both of them and making them jump, Willow nearly spilling her coffee, their reaction prompting the demon to give them an apologetic look while she moved to the kitchen counter and helped herself to a cup of coffee as well.

"I told you yesterday night, Sweetie", she went on while she did so, "if she's so powerful, she could have killed us all by now, instead she's just talking and making threats and offers. You don't make offers to anyone if you're sure you can take them, you just get rid of them."

"Good point", Buffy agreed, "I tend to agree with you about this, but we should still be careful, her son already was quite powerful, who knows what she can do."

"She said that the powers of her son were nothing, compared to hers", Willow let her know in reply, "and I wish I could agree with the two of you, but… I don't know… I'm just worried…"

"That's just what she wants", Pat told her, sitting down next to her and grasping her hand, "to worry you and to freak you out. I know it won't be useful if I just tell you to stop it, but it'll all be okay, don't let her control you like that…"

"I'm trying", Willow sighed, giving her partner a slightly dismayed look, "but it's easier said than done… You should have heard her, she was so sure of herself, she didn't sound as if she's bluffing…"

"People who bluff hardly ever sound that way", Buffy threw in, smiling when immediately, Pat nodded her agreement, "as I said, I'm agreeing with Pat here, she's most likely bluffing. We still should be careful, but there's no use in getting all paranoid now."

"Good point", the redhead finally agreed, making both her girlfriend and her best friend smile; Pat took the time to squeeze her hand reassuringly once more, then pulled back to find her cigarettes, rolling her eye at the pointed look Buffy gave her before she wordlessly pointed at the front door.

"Aw, come on", the demon tried to protest, "do I really have to? I've smoked in here before, you know…"

"Yes, and it took me days to get the smell out of the house again", the Slayer replied at once, "so not this time. Go outside or don't smoke at all."

"Fine", Pat grumbled, getting up from her seat and picking up her cup of coffee; she bent down for a quick kiss from Willow, then made her way outside, the redhead looking after her for a few moments before she focused on Buffy again, giving her best to sound confident and not all too worried when she spoke up again. "We should call Giles after breakfast, and ask him if the coven had any useful information, and maybe Pat can try a locator spell so we can find that demon…"

"Good ideas", Buffy agreed at once, nodding, "let's do that once your girlfriend joined us again. Let's hope she won't take too long."

"Nah", the witch smiled at once, "whenever she smokes outside alone somewhere, she's pretty quick. She says it's boring."

"I imagine", Buffy giggled, then downed half of her coffee with one large gulp; smirking at the sight, Willow took a much smaller sip of her own cup, nodding when the blonde asked her if it tasted okay.

"I hope the coven will have some way to help", she then sighed, now not able to keep the dismay out of her voice anymore, "I still feel so empty without the magic, I've gotten so used to having it…"

"I can't even imagine how that must feel", Buffy grimaced, reaching over the table and grasping her friend's hand, eager to give her some comfort, "and to be honest, I didn't even know it's possible to do that…"

"It shouldn't be, not so easily, at least", Willow let her know in reply, smiling slightly at the reassuring touch, "it shows that this demon is really powerful…"

"Let's wait and see what Giles found out before we decide on how powerful she really is", Buffy gave back, squeezing the redhead's hand again, "maybe it's just some silly little trick which can be undone quickly."

"I hope so", the witch sighed, then took another sip of her coffee; smiling at her reassuringly, Buffy gave her hand yet another squeeze, then focused on getting done with her breakfast as well, glancing at the front door every now and then as they both waited for Pat to come back inside so they could call Giles and hopefully find out how to solve this whole mess.


	17. Chapter 17

"I have quite the good news", the Watcher let them know an hour later as he joined them in the Summers house, "I spoke to the coven, as promised, and they told me some very interesting things."

"Well, don't make us wait for them", Pat demanded, sounding impatient; she had made herself comfortable on the couch with her partner after Buffy had called Giles and had been told that it'd take too long over the phone and that'd he come over, her arm now around the redhead's shoulders, so she could feel her tense up as well at the Brit's words. To the dismay of both of them, he didn't do so immediately though, but instead decided that an explanation was in order before he could tell them what exactly the coven had said, as always when he was going into lecture mood taking off his glasses and polishing them while he spoke, holding Willow's gaze as he informed her of the call's results.

"As you know, Willow, magic theoretically can be done by anyone with the right ingredients and spells, but not everyone has the same potential", he started, making the redhead nod, a slightly impatient look on her face as well now.

"The strength of someone's potential depends on how deep their connection to the magical energies of the world are", Giles went on, unimpressed by her facial expression, "a connection which can be deepened and strengthened by regular use of magic, but which also can be severed, cutting the person in question off completely."

"Is that what that demon did to Willow?" Pat wanted to know, clearly not willing to wait much longer; this resulted in a disapproving look from the Brit, but after a moment, he nodded, focusing on Willow again and giving her a calming smile.

"Your connection to the magical forces was very deep, and thorough", he went on, "as you surely were aware of yourself. I guess we could say that your natural state is to be connected to the magic, so, according to the coven, it won't be too hard to re-establish that connection. They told me about a spell we'll need to do, for which I'll need your help, Pat, since as a demon, you are naturally connected to those forces as well."

"Yeah, I know, I've heard that before", the demon gave back, "so is this spell complicated? What do we have to do?"

"You won't have to do anything, except for supporting me with your strength", Giles informed her, "I'd do it alone if I was sure that I'm powerful enough, but unfortunately, I'm not quite convinced of that. I already brought everything we need."

"Wise man", Pat said in reply to that, making Willow smile while the Watcher gave her another disapproving look; then, he turned to Buffy and asked her to move the rug on the floor aside so he could draw the symbols needed for the spells on the wood beneath, the Slayer nodding at once and getting up to do just that.

"Is this spell dangerous?" Willow wanted to know, once more remembering the threat of the nightmare demon and giving her partner a worried glance; to her relief, Giles shook his head, then smiled calmingly at her, briefly making her wonder if Buffy had told him about the threats that had been made, a thought she shrugged off when the Watcher spoke up again and gained her full attention once more.

"Not any more dangerous than any spells you did together with Pat before", he reassured her, "in the worst case, you might pass out for a minute or two, if the rush of the magic coming back is too big."

"Well, that's calming", Pat commented dryly, shrugging when Willow gave her a look, sounding slightly defensive when she went on. "What? I just don't like the thought of my girlfriend passing out because of some magic overflow crap."

"As I said, I'm not sure that this will happen", Giles reminded her of his own words, "it is very possible that the magic will just flow back into her at a level she can deal with, and nothing unpleasant will happen at all."

"Let's hope that'll be the case", Pat sighed, making them nod; then, Giles got up from his seat and found a piece of chalk and a book in the bag he had brought, the rest watching with interest how he started drawing various complicated looking symbols on the floor, consulting the book every now and then, double-checking a few times to make sure he really got them all right.

"Alright", he finally muttered, putting both the book and the piece of chalk aside and removing a bunch of incense sticks from the bag, "almost done… Now, once the smell of these sticks spread enough, we can get started. Pat, I'll need to stand next to me, we'll hold hands while I say the incantation, and you, Willow, please stand right here, in the middle of the symbols. Pat, a bit of fire please?"

In response, the demon made a small flame appear on her index finger, then held her hand out to Giles; he gave her a brief smile, then lit up the incense sticks, placing them at several of the symbols he had drawn, the strong, musky odor soon filling the room, new nervousness filling Willow when he looked at her at last and nodded. Gulping, giving her best to hide how nervous she was feeling, she stepped on the spot the Brit was pointing out to her; Pat moved right behind her, stopping next to Giles and letting him grasp her hand, holding back a snarky comment about how they shouldn't do that in front of her girlfriend, forcing herself to remain quiet as he started chanting the incantation.

Giving her best to calm herself down, knowing that she was endangering the success of the spell if she was too nervous, Willow forced herself to stand still and not to fidget around; after a few moments, Pat caught her gaze, and the calming smile the demon gave her helped her to calm her further, until she even managed to return an honest, albeit not all too wide smile.

Moments later, said smile faded from her face again though when Giles finished the incantation; Pat felt his grip on her hand tighten, then a strong breeze suddenly came up in the living room, the smoke which still was rising from the incense sticks forming symbols and figures too complicated to be mere coincidence while Willow, another few seconds later, was lifted off her feet, the witch automatically closing her eyes as she felt the energy all around her. She didn't even notice how she clenched her fists and grit her teeth, a low groan escaping her, prompting Pat to look at Giles in worry; he gave her a calming glance as an answer, then Willow suddenly let out a hoarse cry as the connection was reestablished all at once, her eyes practically flying open, filled with a bright orange glow none of them had ever seen there before, the sight startling Giles enough so he involuntarily squeezed the demon's hand with surprising strength, making her wince in pain.

She just had the time to give him a brief look, then the air around both of them seemed to contract, making it hard to breathe; and seconds later, it expanded with shocking force, something which felt like the blast wave after an explosion hitting both of them and sending them flying, the sight of her partner hitting the living room table being the last thing Willow saw before the energy became too much to bear and darkness enfolded her.

* * *

She didn't know how long she had been out when she came around again, groaning softly to herself as she opened her eyes; to her surprise, she found herself flat on her back, on the ground, briefly wondering why no one had bothered to put her on the couch – before several things registered in her mind, one of them making her happy, the others causing worry to well up within her. The reason for her happiness was pinpointed quickly, and easily understood – the spell had worked just as it had been supposed to, and she could feel the magic flowing within her again, ready to be used the moment she'd decide to.

Even though she had been looking forward to this from the moment on Giles had told her that he'd be able to help her, this was not important anymore now though, since the reason for her concern was bigger than any happiness ever could have been – a few feet away from herself, she could hear Pat groan softly, and Buffy was saying the demon's name over and over again, as if trying to gain her attention – or maybe, trying to keep her awake.

Ignoring how dizzy she was feeling, Willow sat up on the ground, her eyes going wide a second later as she took in the scene in front of her, her heartbeat speeding up until it felt as if her heart would explode right out of her chest while she, dizziness and the regain of her magic now fully forgotten, came to her feet and hurried over to where Pat had fallen on the table, her brain nearly going into overload as it tried to cope with what she was seeing.

The wooden surface of the table had broken when the black haired woman had landed on it, not able to withstand the force of the impact and her weight; three of the table's legs had been splintered as well, and one of them now stuck out of the groaning demon's stomach as she laid impaled on it, covered in blood, more blood seeping from the wound and making the already shockingly large puddle on the wooden ground even bigger.

"No", Willow brought out, still unable to belief her eyes; her voice had sounded tiny and soft to her, barely audible, but still Buffy had heard her, turning her head to look at her, the terror in her wide eyes telling the witch everything she needed to know.

"No", she repeated, as if just saying this certain word often enough would make this undone, "this… No. No!" With the final word, she moved the last few steps to where her partner laid, the taller woman's hands by now clutching the table leg, blood covering her hands; not sure if she should cry or scream or both, Willow fell down on her knees next to her, not caring when she landed right in the puddle of blood and it started soaking her pants.

"Pat", she brought out, after swallowing down her tears, telling herself that it wouldn't help her partner if she'd cry in front of her, "look at me, come on…"

To her relief, the demon reacted to her words by doing just that, the pain she could see in her good eye making her heart clench up again, something she fought hard to hide as she spoke on the moment she could be sure she had her loved one's attention.

"I know you're in pain, and it'll get worse before this is over, but we have to get that piece of wood out of you, so you can demon out and heal that… okay? It'll hurt, but it'll be okay… it has to be okay…"

"Not gonna… be okay", the demon whispered in reply, her voice so weak that the redhead barely heard it and was forced to bend closer to her, her chest tightening again at the sight of the blood which had come from the taller woman's mouth and now was running down her cheeks, "too late…"

"No", Willow replied at once, shaking her head for emphasis, even putting on the Resolve Face, "you'll be okay, you hear? You won't just… you can't, no, I won't let you! You promised!"

"Sorry", Pat brought out, then let out an awfully wet sounding cough, more blood trickling down her cheeks moments later; not sure what else to do, realizing that her girlfriend was right and that it was too late and too bad to ever be okay again, Willow grasped her hand and held it, giving her best to look and sound soothing when she moved her free hand to caress her lover's hair, biting down her tears, telling herself that the last thing she wanted her partner to see was a smile.

"I love you", she told her after a few moments of just looking at her, feeling how Buffy put one hand on her shoulder, but not reacting to the blonde's touch, "and I'm sorry…"

If the demon had anything to reply to that, she couldn't bring out the words, her lips just moving soundlessly; after watching this for a few moments, and feeling her heart break at seeing her normally so strong and confident partner so weak, Willow put an end to it by bending down and kissing the dying woman, not even noticing the taste of blood that inevitably came with the kiss.

While they still were kissing, Willow felt her partner shudder beneath her, a raspy, uneven breath coming from her; and then, she laid still, and when the redhead pulled back from the kiss, she saw the empty gaze and that the demon had stopped breathing, and now she allowed herself to break, tears running down her cheeks moments later as she clutched her dead partner, not even hearing anymore how Buffy kept calling out her name…


	18. Chapter 18

Author's Note: Due to the shocked reactions of some of you guys (and because they made me feel bad about the cliffy), here's the next update a day early. Do tell if you want another one tomorrow, anyway ;) and enjoy!

* * *

"Willow!" This time, a bit of pain came with the yelling of her name, and it stunned her to realize that she had been slapped; she had a moment to ask herself how inconsiderate Buffy actually was, then she noticed that she was flat on her back again, her eyes flying open as she realized what this might mean, even though she barely dared to hope so – until Pat leaned over her and looked at her, the sight of her lover alive and well nearly making her faint again. Ignoring how dizzy she was feeling, she sat up and practically flung herself into the taller woman's arms; clearly startled, Pat stared at her for a moment, then returned the embrace, her voice as concerned as her expression when she asked the witch if she was okay.

"Yes", Willow gave back at once, still hugging her tightly, "I am now, now that I know that you're okay…"

"Why shouldn't I be okay?" Pat wanted to know, now not sounding worried anymore, but just confused; pulling back from the hug just enough so she could look at her, Willow smiled and told her it wasn't important, then kissed her tenderly, glad when she saw that she had managed to put a smile on her partner's face with the gesture afterwards.

"Did the spell work?" the demon then wanted to know, her smile widening when Willow nodded at once, the horrible event she'd dreamed off while she'd been unconscious ignored for now.

"Just as it was supposed to", she reassured the taller woman, "I can feel it, it all came back…"

"Great", Giles' voice came from behind them, the Watcher looking a bit roughened up as he moved up to her and smiled at her, "so getting thrown across the room at least was worth it."

"Sorry", the witch sheepishly mumbled, relieved when Giles waved her apology aside with a casual gesture, then asked her if she felt dizzy or otherwise strange, appearing slightly relieved when she shook her head.

"Good", Buffy threw in before he could say anything, and maybe voice the reason for the brief flash of concern Willow had seen in his eyes when he had asked how she was feeling, "then we can now figure out how to kill that demon. Any ideas?"

"We have to come up with something to stop her from making our nightmares come true again during the fight", Willow pointed out, shrugging off the concern she had seen in the Brit's eyes, "or who knows what will happen…"

"Would the blocking spell help?" Buffy wanted to know, ignoring the dismayed look she received from Pat for this suggestion, the demon still remembering well what had happened the last time Willow had used that spell, appearing a bit relieved when the witch shrugged in reply.

"Not sure", she then let the Slayer know, "that depends on how she uses her powers… If they're purely magical or part of her nature. Like Pat's flames, you know, the blocking spell wouldn't work with those either cause they're kinda part of the package."

"Is there a way to find out if it would work?" Pat wanted to know, frowning when the witch shrugged in reply, then crossed her arms over her chest, sounding as dismayed as she was looking when she went on. "So you wanna try a spell which we know tires you out terribly and gives you a massive nosebleed without even being sure that it'll help? No way."

"Not one of the best ideas, indeed", Giles agreed, to the surprise of the others, since so far, he usually had gone along even with the more outrageous plans, "we at least should find out if the spell would do any good before using it. It is quite unnerving that we don't have more time to find out more about this demon…"

"There has to be some sort of spell which can defeat her", Buffy thought out loud, shrugging when they all looked at her, then smirking slightly, her next words making the Watcher and the demon smile as well while Willow looked slightly unnerved. "Think about it, at first she took Willow's magic from her, and then, when we decided we'd figure out how to give it back to her, she came here to make a deal with her and to threaten her. There must be a certain reason why she's obviously afraid of you, Willow."

"Well, if there is, I have no idea what it is", the redhead sighed in reply. "There's probably some spell or something, but as Giles said, we don't have forever to search for it, if we take too long, she'll finish feeding and go to sleep for another thirty years, and it'll never stop."

"Indeed", the Watcher sighed out again in response, "and we can't let that happen, for the sake of the people here, not to mention that it is your duty as the Slayer to stop this creature, Buffy."

"I know", Buffy grumbled, "but how do we stop her? We have no idea how to find her, and even if we do, just fighting her won't do any good, you saw what her son was capable of doing and he was just a child. There must be some reason why she's after Willow like that, and I bet that, once we found out about it, we can defeat her."

"Wait", the redhead mumbled, with that particular look on her face that showed she was having an idea, making them all look at her curiously, "I think I'm coming up with something…"

"Hopefully nothing dangerous", Pat mumbled, shrugging when Giles gave her a scolding look, not adding anything else; and before the Brit could make a comment, Willow went on, making them both focus on her again, even though her attention was fully on Buffy and she didn't even seem to notice them.

"Remember when you were kinda out of it after that whole mess with Glory, when she'd managed to capture Dawn?" she wanted to know, not surprised when Buffy nodded at once, her face briefly darkening at the unpleasant memories.

"You entered my mind then", the blonde added at Pat's confused look, the realization dawning on her a moment later and making her smile. "And you want to do that again, right? Or something similar?"

"Something similar", Willow confirmed, smiling, now warming up to her own idea, suddenly sure that it would work. "I'll enter the dream of one of you", she went on, "and confront her there. Maybe we could find some binding spell so I can bind her to the dreamscape, then she'll be stuck there forever and won't be able to come here anymore to feed…"

"And if that doesn't work, you can bring her back here with you and you can kill her, right?" Pat wanted to know, looking not so worried anymore when the witch nodded after a moment, giving her partner a calming smile, the effect she'd been intending ruined by her own words moments later though.

"It's quite a big bit of mojo I'll have to do to make it work, but I know it can be done, so I'm not worried… the question is just, which dream will I enter, and how will that entrance happen", she let the rest of the small group know, choosing her next words carefully since she knew that her partner wouldn't like them one bit.

"I'll either enter that dream as myself, like I did when I entered Buffy's mind", she started the explanation, "or as the person who's dream I'm entering. So, no offense, Sweetie, but I'd prefer it to be Buffy's dreamworld, if your worst nightmares are mostly about me dying or getting horribly wounded."

"Yeah, that makes sense", the demon agreed after thinking about this for a moment, while Buffy looked quite nervous, shuffling her feet, shrugging when Willow gave her a curious look.

"I'm not sure I'll be able to fall asleep if I know you'll want to enter my dreams", she then explained, to the amusement of everyone, even Giles, blushing slightly, "you're not gonna look at anything… private, right?"

"No", Willow reassured her at once, not having the slightest interest in the private matters Buffy was referring to, "and I can help you with the falling asleep too, there's a spell for that."

"Alright", the Slayer finally agreed, after thinking about it for a few more seconds, "let's do this then… Right now?"

"No, not right now", the redhead declined, "I need to get some stuff from home first, ingredients I'll need for the spell to enter your dreams and more of that incense sticks, unless Giles still has some."

"Two", the Watcher let her know, not surprised when she told him that two weren't enough; it didn't surprise her that moments later, Pat spoke up and stated that she'd accompany her to their place, not willing to let her go alone. For a moment, she felt like telling her that it'd be better if Buffy came along, remembering the threats of the nightmare demon; then, she realized that it didn't really matter, since that demon could be anywhere and use the dreams of any citizen of Sunnydale against them and just nodded.

"Let's go then", she added after a moment, "I want this over with quickly, before she finishes feeding somewhere else and goes back to sleep."

Nodding, the demon came to her feet; Buffy took the time to tell them to take care, making them both nod before they left the house together, the witch looking left and right as she stepped outside with her partner in tow, almost expecting the nightmare demon to pop up and threaten her again, or maybe even try to do more than just threaten this time.

"Relax", Pat's voice came from behind her, the taller woman moving up to her side a moment later, "if she pops up here now, the business will be finished quicker than she thinks right now, cause I'll kill her."

"If it'd be so easy, she already would be dead", Willow pointed out in reply, "who knows what she'll do, just think of her what her son did when he made you stab me instead of that thug."

"Don't remind me of that", Pat grimaced, making the redhead smile slightly while she reached over to grasp her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze, giving her best to also sound reassuring when she replied. "That wasn't your fault, and let's hope she won't pull a trick like that… But we shouldn't take any risks."

"Good point", the demon agreed after a moment, "and even though being careful is something I'm usually not all too good at, I guess I'll have to try this time."

"Yup", Willow smiled, "at least until we got rid of that demon, then you can go back to being reckless."

Chuckling, Pat nodded her agreement, then stopped walking for a quick kiss, a demand the witch gladly fulfilled; afterwards, they continued on their way to their home, both of them hoping that the solution Willow had come up with would help them to get rid of this demon once and for all, before even more harm could be done to any of them.


	19. Chapter 19

"Alright", Willow said an hour later, looking from the small pile of ingredients on the table at her best friend, "once I did the first spell, you'll fall asleep for three or four hours, that should be enough time to find her and get rid of her. I'll do the second spell to enter your dreamworld right afterwards, so we won't lose too much time."

"Okay", Buffy agreed, trying to hide how nervous she was feeling about this, not wanting her friends to notice that the thought of being magicked into sleep wasn't exactly appealing to her, "and there's no danger for either of us, right?"

"I'm not sure", Willow admitted after a moment, "seeing how strong she is, she might use that against us in the dreamworld, or against me, if I take your place there. I should be able to handle her though…"

"Let's hope so", Pat sighed, "I don't like the thought of you going up against her on your own. What did you say earlier about not taking any risks?"

"That's a risk we have to take", Willow pointed out in reply, "and I'm sure it'll be fine, I have my magic back, remember? I can handle her with that."

"Seems like my confidence is rubbing off on you", the demon commented as an answer, making the redhead giggle slightly while she shrugged; then, she grew serious again as she focused on the task at hand, asking Buffy to lie down on the couch and to make herself comfortable, the Slayer doing so, still giving her best to hide how nervous she was feeling.

"Try to relax", Willow advised her, making it clear to her that her tries to hide that certain feeling hadn't been very successful, "the spell will be easier for me if you're not as tense as a wire."

"Sorry", Buffy mumbled, then took in a deep breath and closed her eyes, giving her best to think happy thoughts; Willow gave her another smile, then readied the powder she'd need to make the blonde fall asleep, pouring some of it into her palm, keeping her gaze focused on her best friend as she started chanting. Behind her, Pat and Giles watched curiously, none of them making a noise, well aware that this often was crucial for certain spells to work out; still, they both flinched despite their tries not to do so when Willow said the last words, then let the powder trickle down on Buffy's face, where it started to glow the moment it landed on the skin and vanished into nothingness.

"Alright", the witch whispered after the last few tiny grains had vanished and the slow, calm breaths of Buffy showed that she was fast asleep, "now for the hard part…"

"You can do it", Pat gave her best to be supportive, even though she still had doubts about the whole idea; Willow gave her a brief thankful smile, then took in a deep breath as she focused again, picking up the second batch of ingredients she had readied, starting by lighting up the several sticks of incense she had brought along from their home.

"Alright", she then repeated, looking behind her to make sure no hard or edged things were right behind her, "just so you know, once I finished the spell, I'll probably just slump backwards and lie there, so don't freak out, okay?"

Even though the redhead's words made her grimace, Pat just nodded, not trying to protest – before she got up and moved to sit right behind her partner, making her smile slightly, another thankful look accompanying the smile, the black haired woman giving her a wry smile as well in reply.

They looked at each other for a few more seconds, then Willow finally turned away again and focused on her spell once more; behind her, Pat held her breath when the witch started chanting again, already anticipating the moment she'd say the last word and just slump over backwards the moment the spell would take effect. Since the spell didn't have too many words, this happened quite fast; the witch said the last word, then tossed the fistful of powdered ingredients she'd been holding during the chanting at herself, her eyes falling closer moments later, her body going limp and, just as she had predicted, falling backwards, the redhead not even noticing anymore how she landed in her partner's waiting arms and was held tightly, the world vanishing around her as she entered Buffy's dreamworld.

* * *

The moment she opened her eyes again, she knew that something was amiss, and the realization came to her a second later – she was hanging in the air, not exactly floating like she could with magic, but dangling as if on invisible strings. Seconds after she had noticed that, she was falling, a cry escaping her at the unexpected sensation; and then, she landed on her back on something surprisingly soft, her eyes going wide when she noticed the walls of earth all around her, her heart skipping a beat when the realization why the ground beneath her was so soft followed a moment later.

"Foolish witch", the all too familiar voice of the nightmare demon now came from above, making her look up automatically, the demon smiling down on her cruelly, "you thought you could come here, to my realm, and defeat me here? This is my world, stupid girl, and my rules. You should have asked your friend about her nightmares before doing this…"

She smiled, a cruel and cold smile that sent shivers up and down Willow's spine; before she could come with an answer though, or a way to get herself out of this unpleasant situation, the lid of the coffin she had landed in slammed shut, leaving her in total darkness, her breath getting caught in her throat when the low thump of earth landing on the lid followed moments later.

"No!" she cried out, not even sure whom she was talking to, if it was the nightmare demon herself burying her alive or some unseen foe, brought into existence by Buffy's fears of having this happen to her, "stop! Let me out!"

Even though she tried hard to keep calm, knowing that things only would get worse if she'd panic, she couldn't help herself when the only response was more earth thumping down on the closed lid, some of it trickling through unseen gaps and landing on her face, the cold, wet feeling of graveyard earth on her skin finally shattering her resolve to remain calm.

"Let me out!" she screamed again, her voice nearly breaking as she yelled at the top of her lungs, banging her fists against the firmly shut lid above her, "please! Please, no, let me out...!"

Again, the only response was more earth falling down on her coffin, morbidly making her wonder if the lid was covered by now or not; for a moment, she felt like just screaming until she'd go hoarse, then she forced herself to remain quiet, closing her eyes as she tried to regain some semblance of calm.

_It's a dream, _she told herself, making herself breathe slowly and calmly, _use that to your advantage, you can get out of this, it's just a dream and you can't be hurt here…_

A particular loud thump from above the lid made her jump, and she nearly slipped into panic again when she felt more earth trickle down on her; squeezing her eyes shut, Willow fought hard to remain as calm as she could, taking in slow, deep breaths while she placed her hands against the coffin lid and gave an experimental push, not surprised when it didn't budge at all.

"I wish I had Buffy's strength now", she muttered to herself, giving her best to ignore how odd her voice sounded in the small space of the coffin, "then I could just dig myself out…"

Since she knew that this wasn't an option, she shrugged the idea off, then racked her mind as she tried to come up with a spell which would get her out of this; when she had entered the dreamworld, she only had been thinking of spells to defeat the nightmare demon, and not for a second had thought of the possibility that she might end up in such a situation. Now that it had happened, she had to admit that the nightmare demon had made quite a good point when she had reminded her of the fact that this was her world, and that her rules were applied here; she asked herself how she could have overlooked such a crucial fact, how it could have happened that none of her friends had thought of this, then pushed those thoughts aside as well, telling herself that it didn't matter now.

Carefully, she placed her hands against the coffin lid and pushed again, gritting her teeth when she put more and more strength against the wood; for a moment, she almost thought it would budge after all, then her hand slipped and sharp pain ran through her palm, an involuntary, small sound of dismay escaping her – before her eyes widened as she realized what just had happened.

Under normal circumstances, getting a splinter into her palm wouldn't have freaked her out at all, since she simply would have pulled it out and maybe would have complained to her girlfriend to receive cuddles and kisses as consolation; now though, the pain showed her that her previous thoughts hadn't been entirely right – even though it shouldn't be possible, she could get hurt in this particular dream.

"And if I can get hurt, I can die", she whispered to herself, the realization blowing what little resolve she still had had left into tiny pieces as the panic took over fully, making her scream and cry in the darkness as she hammered against the coffin lid again and again, until her throat was sore and her hands hurt, and still the lid was as immobile as it had been when she had been thrown into the coffin, the constant thumping of more earth landing on it forming a rhythm to her cries, her shouts and pleas leaving whoever was piling the earth on and on unmoved.


	20. Chapter 20

By the time the hoarseness of her voice and the pain in her raw throat forced her to stop screaming, Willow had not the slightest clue how long she had been in this coffin already; the low thumping of earth falling down on the lid had stopped, forcing her to ask herself if she had been buried fully now and what would happen once the air would run out – if she'd really die then, or if she'd just wake up again, the mission to defeat the nightmare demon merely failed instead of ending her life, and all because of one little oversight.

Asking herself how they all could have been so stupid, she closed her eyes, feeling like crying, but having no tears left to cry; only now, she realized how stupid it had been to let that outburst from before happen, her blood running cold as she thought of all the air she had wasted with yelling and crying.

_Okay, no more shouting and no more tears, _she told herself, making sure to not do so out loud, not wanting to waste anymore air by talking to herself, _focus now on getting out of here, you can do it, this is what your magic is for… _She opened her eyes again, even though it didn't make much of a difference in the coffin's total darkness, and tried to focus on the variety of spells she had learned during the years; she knew that there had to be something which would help her to get out of this whole mess, and all she had to do was remember.

The fact that by now, it was getting noticeably harder to breathe, didn't exactly make this easier for her; and again she found herself wondering how much air she had wasted with yelling instead of finding a way to get out of this, the panic slowly starting to cloud her mind again as various unpleasant scenarios of suffocation started appearing in front of her inner eye.

She got so absorbed in those ponderings that at first, she didn't even notice that earth was falling down on her again; and when she did, it only made her shiver again as she asked herself if whoever had been burying her before had come back now, to heap even more earth on the grave or to make sure that she still was down there, and still unable to get out. Giving her best to breathe as flatly as possible, Willow tried focusing on her magic once more, but by now, it seemed as if all the spells she had learned in her life had been wiped from her brain; she couldn't come up with a single one that would help her to get out of this coffin, and the knowledge that she'd die soon if she couldn't remember anything made thinking about it only harder.

More earth fell down on her, distracting her even further as she flinched; she squeezed her eyes shut, feeling close to tears again, suddenly wishing for nothing else than just waking up in the living room of Buffy's house, safe and sound, as it usually happened during nightmares, when no demons were around to make them come true, putting her in such dreadful situations without a way to get out again… "Willow?"

Her partner's voice was so unexpected that at first, Willow was sure she had imagined it and didn't even bother responding, telling herself that it was a hallucination brought on either by a desire of her brain to make the last few minutes easier or by lack of oxygen, or maybe even a mix of both; then, Pat called out her name again, the hint of fear in her voice all at once convincing her that she wasn't imagining it.

For a moment, she almost called out, then remembered the scarce air supply and that, telling herself that she couldn't have an idea how long it would take the demon to dig her out, it wouldn't be wise to waste it any further; and thus, she just hammered against the coffin lid instead, hoping that Pat would be able to hear her through all the earth that surely still was covering the coffin.

The response was non-verbal, but immediate – more earth trickled into the coffin, and she could hear the sounds of frantic digging from above her, not even noticing that she was holding her breath as she waited for her partner to dig deep enough so she'd find the coffin. To her relief, the taller woman apparently had put as much strength as possible into the task, since it seemed like only a minute had passed when something hit the wooden lid with a low thumping sound, followed by the muffled voice of the demon as she muttered curses to herself; and a few seconds later, the lid was pulled off and Pat's arms were around her, lifting her up and out of the coffin, a shudder running through her as she clung to her partner as tightly as she could.

"It's okay, I've got you, it's okay", she heard the demon mumble while she was carried up a rather steep slope of earth, out of the grave; once she had reached the grass, Pat tried to lower her onto the ground there, with no success though since the witch was still clinging to her, refusing to let go. Figuring that Willow wouldn't release her grip on her any time soon, she lowered herself on the ground instead after a moment, making the redhead end up sitting in her lap, another shiver running through the smaller woman when she felt the demon's hug around her tighten, giving her the comfort she needed after this horrible experience.

"I thought that's it", she finally brought out after a few moments of just letting the taller woman hold her, "I couldn't think of any spell to get out of that coffin, and the air was running out, I was noticing it, and I got a splinter in my palm so I knew I could get hurt here, even though it's just a dream, so…"

"Willow", Pat interrupted her, not unkindly, "you're babbling. Hush, or you'll start to hyperventilate."

"You're right", the witch mumbled after a moment, realizing that she indeed had been babbling, "but I'm just so glad you're here and got me… Wait. How did you get here? This is still a dream, right?"

"Yes and no", the demon sighed out in reply, smiling wryly at the confused look Willow gave her as an answer, hurriedly explaining what exactly had happened and how she had ended up in this dream with her.

"At first, it seemed as if everything went well", she started, "you were knocked out cold right after finishing the spell – I caught you, by the way, so you didn't hit your head on the floor or anything – and we just sat there waiting for both of you to wake up again. But then you started stirring and moaning, as if you're having a nightmare, Giles and I tried to wake you up, no luck there though…"

"Yeah, that's part of the spell", Willow agreed, silently amazed at how much hearing her partner's voice was calming her down, along with the embrace she still was held in; Pat smiled wryly again and nodded, then continued, momentarily relieved that the nightmare demon gave her time to tell the witch about everything and didn't interrupt them with any stupid attacks.

"Well, we didn't know that for sure, so we kept trying to wake you up, and our tries became quite frantic when you started screaming and crying in your sleep… And then, Buffy woke up and you were still out cold, and that's when we realized that something had gone really wrong", she went on, chuckling when Willow pointed out that this still didn't explain how she had ended up here to help her.

"Giles remembered the spell well enough to repeat it", she then let her know, her wry smile changing into a smirk, "he wasn't sure if it'd work, since technically, it's Buffy's dream and she was awake, but apparently, it did."

"Thankfully it did", the witch corrected her, "and I'll really need to thank Giles once we got back out of here… How do we get back out? I think we should do so quickly, before I was buried over there, the demon showed up and reminded me of the fact that this is her turf and how stupid it was to try and fight her here…"

"Um, well, Giles wasn't so sure about that when he did the spell", Pat admitted in reply after a moment of silence, giving her partner a sheepish look, "in fact, he should be looking into right now. I kinda talked him into sending me here anyway, you know…"

"I can imagine how you did that", Willow giggled, momentarily amazed that she was capable of laughing so shortly after she had been rescued from a grave, and thankful for the calming effect her partner's mere presence and voice was having on her, "you probably told him you'd beat him up if he didn't do it, right?"

"Maybe", the demon replied airily, making the redhead laugh again; she shook her head, then ignored the dreadful surroundings and their not exactly pleasant situation long enough to snuggle closer to her partner, the couple exchanging a tender kiss afterwards, the witch's voice low when she spoke up after they had pulled apart again. "Well, I'm kinda glad you did so, because now, I don't have to do this alone…"

Smiling, the taller woman nodded in reply, then pulled her close for another kiss; afterwards, she asked what they should do now, pointing out that just sitting around wouldn't help with the demon situation still at hand, making the witch nod her agreement after a moment.

"Let's see if we can leave this cemetery", she then suggested, "I don't like the thought of hanging around here, what with Buffy's nightmares involving vampires who eat her."

"Good point", Pat agreed, coming to her feet, "let's go then and see if there's an—" Before she could finish her sentence, the ground beneath her feet suddenly changed, from the solid grass and earth she had been standing on into something much softer; only when she went under with a loud splash, she realized that somehow, the cemetery had been turned into a lake, the water so cold that it made her heart hammer painfully in her chest.

Her first instinct was to let out a gasp or a groan, some sound to show her discomfort, then she fought it down, telling herself that this would be wasting precious air; instead, she forced herself to remain quiet as she swam upwards with powerful strokes, reaching the surface a few moments later, shaking her wet hair out of her face as she looked around.

"Willow?" she called out, trying to fight down the hint of panic when no response came; treading water, she turned in a perfect circle once, her heartbeat speeding up again when she couldn't spot the witch anywhere. Holding her breath, Pat dived beneath the surface again, looking around underwater afterwards, hoping she'd spot the witch somewhere; all she could see though was more water, seemingly bottomless, until the lack of oxygen forced her to break through the surface again so she could breathe, desperation slowly clouding her mind as she looked around once more and couldn't spot her partner anywhere, the redhead's absence leaving her alone in this vast lake, without a shore in sight.


	21. Chapter 21

Author's Note: Sooo the udpate today comes much later than usual, BUT it's still Thursday here, so it counts. ;D I went to see Lindsey Stirling live and even though usually this isn't my style of music at all (I'm a total metalhead), it was a blast. Check her out if you got the chance, she's one amazing musician. :D

* * *

When the ground had been turned to water beneath her, Willow's first impulse had been to swim, but no matter how hard she had tried, she had been unable to get back to the surface, an invisible force pulling her down further and further; just when she had been sure that she couldn't hold her breath much longer, she suddenly hadn't been sinking anymore, but had fallen instead, landing on the stony ground of what turned out to be a cave at a quick look around, the hole she had fallen through right above her, absurdly, filled with water which somehow didn't rain down on her.

"I have to say, I'm impressed", the nightmare demon's voice distracted her from staring at the gravity-defying water, making her jump as she twirled around, automatically raising her hands, the spells now coming to her mind easily, blue fire crackling on her palms seconds later.

Clearly unimpressed, the demon smiled at her as she came out of her hiding place behind one of the stone pillars in the cave, momentarily annoying Willow with her obvious need for a dramatic entrance; then, she shrugged those feelings off and focused on her opponent, gritting her teeth when the nightmare demon continued. "I didn't think your partner would actually come here. Quite impressive, as I said."

"You don't know her very well", Willow replied, her voice cold and calm, hiding the anger and hate she was feeling towards that demon, "she'd go to Hell for me if she had to. And I'd do the same for her."

"You love each other, I can tell that without your dramatic sentiments", the nightmare demon gave back, not sounding all too impressed, "and it would be touching, in a way… if she hadn't taken my son."

"Your son made her stab me instead of a random thug", Willow pointed out in reply, "getting me hurt usually doesn't put one high onto her sympathy list."

To her surprise, the demon smiled in reply, then shrugged, an evil glint in her eyes when she replied, her words making the witch's blood run cold. "So, once I killed you, I should be worried, this is what you think now, right? Well, I'm not, mostly because even her demon strength won't last forever… and once it ran out… It's the end of the road for her. You can be together in Hell then."

"Where is she?" the redhead demanded to know in reply, giving her best to hide how distressed those words had made her feel, "what did you do to her?"

"Nothing", the demon shrugged, smiling, "I just left her behind when I took you here. I imagine she is treading water right now, but as I said, even her demon strength won't hold on forever, and once she grows too tired, I imagine she'll just drown. I hear it's a very peaceful way to go."

"I won't let that happen", Willow replied at once, glaring when the demon just laughed in reply, clearly not perceiving her as a threat, an impression which was undermined when she spoke up again moments later. "And what do you want to do to prevent it? You think you can kill me here? This is my realm, witch, and it'll be you who'll do the dying."

Her eyes narrowed, and moments later, the redhead flinched as an unpleasant sensation filled her mind; then, it briefly turned to pain, and she groaned, gritting her teeth, relief welling up within her when the pain stopped as fast as it had begun, the emotion being blown away again by the smile that was forming on the nightmare demon's scaly face.

"So many interesting nightmares in there", she then commented, "but there's one I particularly like…"

Her smile widened, and moments later, strong arms encircled Willow from behind, pinning her arms to her side, a shudder running through her when she felt the smelly and hot breath on her cheek as the person who had grabbed her spoke up behind her, whispering into her ear, the voice making her eyes go wide. "Well, well, well", Warren said, and she could hear the smirk on his face, "long time no see."

Horrified, Willow tensed, but before she could do more than that, Warren's grip on her tightened – and then he brutally forced her to turn so she was facing him, hitting her in the face hard enough to send her to the ground seconds later, blood trickling from her split lip as she landed there, reminding her once more of the fact that, despite being in a dreamworld, she could get hurt and even killed, if she'd fail to come up with a plan quickly.

She didn't make the mistake to tell Warren that he wasn't real, well aware of the fact that in this world, he was, and that he could do awful things to her – if she'd let him, and she wasn't planning on doing that. If the circumstances had been different, she might have ended up frozen in fear and terror, but clearly, the nightmare demon hadn't thought about the things she was willing to overcome if it meant that she'd be reunited with her partner – and after what the demon had told her, it was obvious to her that she couldn't take too long, knowing all too well that the demon had been right and that sooner or later, her lover would drown if she didn't come up with a solution first.

"I don't have time for this", she thus told Warren, her words and the confidence he could hear in her voice clearly surprising him; smiling sweetly at him, she came to her feet again, glad that he didn't try to stop her, but only stared at her, something the nightmare demon was mimicking behind the witch, finding it hard to believe that this seemingly perfect nightmare she had found in the redhead's mind now had so little effect on her.

Finally regaining his composure, Warren opened his mouth to protest, maybe make some smart remark again or remind her of what he had taken from her with a single movement of his finger; and seconds later, his eyes widened as fire burst from his mouth instead of words, a pained cry escaping him after a few more moments had passed.

"I regret what I did to you", Willow let him know while the fire she had caused within him with a mere thought started to consume him, "but I'm not afraid of you, so just go back to where you came from."

For a few more seconds, Warren just stared at her, the flames now burning all over his body; and then, he exploded with a shockingly loud noise, leaving not even a speck of dust or ash behind, vanishing as quickly as he had appeared when the nightmare demon had conjured him up.

"And now, to you", Willow calmly went on after the man she had killed years ago was gone, turning to look at the demon, her stoic behavior clearly unsettling the demon, "you think you can do whatever you want here, right? Well, let me tell you something – you might be a powerful demon, but I'm one of the most powerful witches on this planet, maybe even in this universe, and now, _I_ call the shots."

"This… you…" the nightmare demon spluttered in reply, looking so stunned that it almost made Willow laugh, then regained her composure and glared at the smaller witch, giving her best to hide how uneasy this sudden display of confidence was making her feel.

"What makes you think you can defeat me?" she demanded to know, "before you can even lift a finger, I'll make your worst nightmares come true, I'll drop your partner dead at your feet!"

"You wanna know what happened to the last one who did something similar?" Willow wanted to know, a brief flicker of her fingers causing thin pillars of the stony ground to move upwards and wrap around the demon's ankles and wrists with shocking speed, making her cry out in surprise, "I disintegrated her, much like Warren right now. You think killing her will break me? Think again."

In response, the demon let out a snarl – before she narrowed her eyes again and the bonds Willow had put on her shattered, the witch managing just in time to throw up a shield of magical energy when the nightmare demon made the sharp shards of rock fly towards of her, the shield causing them to bounce off and land on the ground instead of cutting into her. Figuring that binding the demon again would only be a waste of time and precious energy, Willow let the shield drop the moment the last shard of rock had hit the ground, the air around her crackling as she focused her energies; and seconds later, a blast of bright white light shot from her hands, engulfing the nightmare demon before she could try to jump out of the way, her screams echoing through the cave as the blast of magic hit her.

Gritting her teeth as she kept the spell up, Willow allowed some of her concentration to focus on something else, namely on how to get rid of this demon completely; and then, the idea came to her, a malicious smirk forming on her face, her eyes briefly filling with darkness while the color of the magical blast changed, turning from white to a brightly glowing red, reminding her of the way her partner's good eye glowed whenever she was angry and pissed off.

"No!" the demon yelled as she realized what was happening to her, her eyes widening as the witch used the pure energy of the dreamworld they were in to channel all the pain and suffering she had caused right back at her, "stop, please! Please! If you stop I'll leave, I promise, I'll never—" Before she could tell Willow what she never would do again, the pain got too much to handle to let her talk any further; instead, she simply shrieked in pain, both hands coming up to clutch on her head – and then, she felt something inside her snap, her eyes briefly widening again before she fell over and landed on the ground with a low thud, remaining there motionless, a final, low groan coming from her as the pain and suffering got too much, the sound fading away as she died, rejoining her son in whatever afterlife she would be sent to now.


	22. Chapter 22

Author's Note: So here we go with yet another one finished. I hope you enjoyed and will be there for the next one, which I'll start posting on Monday. :) I tried to update yesterday, but was being a pain and wouldn't let me, so yeah... The new one will start on Monday regardless :)

* * *

Willow just had a few moments to enjoy her victory, still finding it hard to believe that this spur-of-the-moment idea really had worked – then, with a tremendous splashing sound, the barrier which had been keeping the water above her from pouring into the cave vanished, and she got drenched to the bones, crying out in surprise as she leapt aside, needing a few moments to figure out what just had happened.

The water washing around her ankles finally helped her realize what was going on, and she looked at the hole through which she had been pulled into this cave; apparently, the barrier which had been holding the water there had been connected to the nightmare demon, and now that the wretched creature had died, the barrier was gone as well, allowing the water the follow the laws of physics again. The witch just had a few seconds to wonder if the cave would get flooded now and if she'd drown despite after everything she had done to avoid death; then, a dark shape moving downwards with the flow of water distracted her from those thoughts, her heart skipping a beat in her chest when she recognized the figure as her partner.

"Please don't be dead", she muttered to herself as she watched the demon be carried closer and closer to the hole, nervously biting her lip, wishing that there was something she could do to speed this up; before she could come up with an idea though, she realized that she was standing right beneath the hole, which meant that Pat would fall on top of her once she'd get swept through it, the mental images this brought up distracting her from the thought of speeding the flow of water up.

For a moment, she considered staying where she was so she could try to catch her partner and soften her fall a bit; then, she remembered that Pat was much taller and heavier than her and that it probably wouldn't end well for either of them if she'd try to catch her, thus moving aside with a heavy heart, hoping that her loved one wouldn't end up hurt once she'd reach the hole and fall through.

Without even noticing that she was holding her breath, Willow watched how the strong current carried her partner closer and closer to the hole; and finally, she came through, ending up on the ground in a lifeless heap, the sight prompting the witch to jump forward, grab her and drag her away from the hole so at least the water which still was pouring into the cave wouldn't fall on her anymore.

"Pat?" she tried to get a response from her partner as soon as they had gotten away from the flow, taking the demon's upper body into her lap so she wouldn't lie fully in the by now ankle-deep water that covered the cave's floor, "can you hear me? Come on, wake up…"

For a few dreadful moments, the demon didn't react the slightest; just when Willow was about to get seriously worried though, and already started thinking about the CPR lessons she had had in High School, the taller woman suddenly coughed violently, water spluttering from her mouth and on her clothes, something which didn't matter much though since she was soaked from head to toe anyway.

"Thank goodness", Willow mumbled, more to herself than to her girlfriend, her heart momentarily clenching up when Pat coughed up even more water and she felt her tremble in her grip; then, the demon seemed to calm down, since she forced her good eye open and looked up at the redhead, the words that left her mouth in a hoarse voice moments later making the witch giggle despite herself. "I hate water now. I'll never go swimming again."

"Can't say that I blame you", Willow smiled, moving a strand of wet hair out of her girlfriend's face, "but at least you didn't drown. I was worried there for a moment."

"What happened, anyway?" Pat wanted to know in reply, looking around in confusion and sitting up carefully, grimacing when she noticed the water both Willow and she were sitting in, "how did I end up here? The last thing I remember is how the lake I was in suddenly started, I dunno, moving down or something."

"It started emptying", Willow corrected her, "into this cave. The nightmare demon took me here after she made the cemetery turn into the lake."

"…okay", the demon gave back after a moment, clearly not fully understanding this, but not bothering to question it, either, "and what about the demon? Did she get away again?"

"No", the witch let her know, "she's dead. I killed her."

"Wow", Pat gave back after a few seconds of stunned silence, "you did? That's awesome. How?"

"I channeled all the pain and suffering she caused in her life back at her", Willow replied, "but, to be honest, I'm not even fully sure how I did that. Suddenly, the idea was just… there, and I knew how to do it, so… voila. Dead demon."

"Good riddance", the demon smirked, "I don't think it really matters where that idea came from, the important thing is that it worked. Now we just have to figure out how to get out of here, or we'll just sit around and wait until Giles does so, but that might end up bad for our health, in that cold water."

"Good point", Willow agreed, "maybe we should look for an exit, so we won't have to sit around soaked to the bones until Giles gets us back out. Do you think you can get up and walk already?"

"Sure", Pat shrugged, then demonstrated the truth of her words by coming to her feet; Willow did the same, giggling heartily moments later, her laughter making the demon raise an eyebrow at her as she clearly wondered what was so funny.

"What's so funny?" she wanted to know, almost automatically smiling as well at the sound of her girlfriend's mirth; in response, Willow looked at her, then giggled again, taking a few deep breaths afterwards to calm down, even though she still interrupted herself with laughter several times when she finally replied. "Just look at us! Soaked from head to toe, we must look like drowned dogs!"

"Nah, we're both too good looking to look like dogs", Pat replied at once, even though the witch's words were making her smile; Willow just giggled again in reply, then surprised her partner since, instead of starting to move so they could look for an exit, she stepped closer to her and put both arms around her, the taller woman returning the embrace a moment later.

"I'm glad this is almost over", the redhead mumbled, their plan to get out of the cave for the moment forgotten as she found herself mesmerized by her partner's loving gaze, "who knows how much more damage that demon could have done…"

"Doesn't matter anymore", Pat shrugged, smiling down on her, "you got rid of her, so she'll never harm anyone ever again. Let's just hope that the demon I offed was her only son."

"From what she said, I think he was an only child", Willow smiled in reply, then brought up her arms so she could interlace her fingers behind the demon's neck; quickly, the demon realized what she was aiming at and, with her smirk widening slightly, bent down for a kiss, both of them forgetting about how wet and uncomfortable and cold they had been feeling moments ago when the kiss deepened, only capable of focusing on each other and their love.

* * *

"…finally worked… thank Goodness, I was already getting worried", Buffy's voice muttered rather close to her, making her wonder for a moment what was going on – after all, she had been standing in ankle-deep water just moments ago, kissing her girlfriend after the most recent threat to Sunnydale had been defeated, and it didn't really make sense that her best friend would be there with them all of a sudden. Then, she realized that she didn't stand in said water anymore, but was lying flat on her back, and that her clothes and hair were dry again; it took a few more seconds for the witch to figure out what had happened, relief filling her when she opened her eyes at last and found herself on the floor of Buffy's living room, the Slayer's face appearing above her another moment later.

"How are you feeling?" Buffy wanted to know, the concern in her voice making the redhead smile slightly while she sat up slowly, not sure yet if the long stay in the dreamworld had done any damage; when she didn't feel dizzy or nauseous, she figured that no harm had been done and answered accordingly, to the blonde's obvious relief. "I'm fine, I think… how long have I been out?"

"Almost five hours", Buffy gave back, "two of those together with your girlfriend. Did it at least work out?"

"Yes", Willow let her know, smiling slightly, "the nightmare demon went to join her son in the afterlife. I'm glad you managed to wake us up again, Giles."

"And I'm glad we're not as wet now as we were in that dreamworld", Pat threw in from her right, having woken up as well and sitting up, coughing when both the Slayer and the Watcher raised an eyebrow at her in perfect unison, clearly having no idea what she was talking about – and probably getting wrong images into their heads, judging from the look on their faces.

"There was a lake", she thus added, a bit sheepish, making Willow giggle slightly, "a lake in which I almost drowned while my lovely partner here got rid of the demon. Well done, Sweetie."

"How did you get rid of her?" Giles wanted to know, the witch shrugging slightly in reply, making it her turn to sound a bit sheepish when she replied, since the Watcher's question had made her realize that it hadn't been him who had somehow given her the idea to do the spell she had used for defeating the demon.

"I did a spell", she explained, "one which channeled all the pain and fear she had caused during the centuries into her. It kinda overloaded her I guess, and she died. To be honest, until right now, I thought you'd sent me the idea for that somehow, because I have no idea where it came from."

"No, I didn't", Giles told her what she already knew anyway, "I was quite busy with finding a way to wake both of you up again, after Pat threatened to beat me up, should I refuse to get her to you." With the last words, he gave the demon a pointed look, clearly still not all too happy about the fact that she had threatened him to make him send her after Willow; obviously not impressed, Pat didn't even bother to reply, but just shrugged, making him roll his eyes.

"Well, even though it wasn't nice of her to threaten you, it was good you sent her after me", the witch let him know, making him look at her again, "because apparently, one of Buffy's worst nightmares includes being buried alive, so Pat had to dig me out."

"Oh my God", Buffy gave back, clearly shocked by hearing this, "are you sure you're okay? That's just awful."

"I'm fine", Willow reassured her in reply, "I'll just stay away from narrow, confined spaces for a while, I think."

"Probably better that way", Buffy agreed, "I really should have warned you about that, I'm sorry…"

"It's okay, really", the witch replied, smiling slightly, touched by her best friend's concern for her well-being, "as I said, as long as I don't have to go anywhere similar to a coffin in the near future, I'm okay."

"Good thing you've been out of the closet for quite some time now", Pat commented, then cringed at her own words while the rest just gave her disbelieving looks, the demon having the grace to blush slightly as she cleared her throat.

"I'm sorry, I have no idea where that came from", she added, looking even more embarrassed when for a few more moments, the others just kept staring at her; then, Willow finally was the first one to burst into giggles, Buffy and Giles following suit a few moments later, the redhead still laughing when she moved closer to her partner to hug her, slowly calming down while the taller woman returned the embrace, still looking quite embarrassed.

"That must have been the lamest pun you've made in years", the witch smirked once she had calmed down enough to talk without starting to giggle again, "you should be ashamed."

"Believe me, I am", Pat grimaced, prompting her girlfriend and Buffy to laugh once more while Giles managed to stop at a grin this time; still smirking from ear to ear, Willow leaned in for a quick and innocent, but tender kiss, all four smiling at each other afterwards, glad that once more, they had been victorious against their opponents and that the whole situation had ended well.

End.

4


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